The Night Megumi Won
by Charon the Sabercat
Summary: Nakiri Erina, Yukihira Souma, Nakiri Senzaemon, Saiba Asahi, and what felt like all of Tootsuki's Elite looked down at Megumi and told her "This is just the way it is." Megumi stood up and said "It won't be." Basically a fic with lofty goals and a lot of Megumi. Ensemble cast.
1. Chapter 1

Anarchy in Tootsuki Academy

Disclaimer: Writing fanfic for long-running manga is hard! Much less when you don't own it. Just let it be known that this fanfic is very selfish. For people who are used to the dub: I was always a bigger fan of the anime, so the names being in family-name-first format and the honorifics just come to me easier when I'm writing. Apologies if it throws anybody off.

Tadokoro Megumi had grown up understanding that the world was full of small injustices. Comfort came in little doses from loved ones, but comfort was for resting. Growth happened through hardship. It kept her from succumbing to despair when life was its hardest. Working long hours with her mother when the ryokan was at its lowest points were fond memories, now. She owed her skills at handling fish to her harsh teachers in childhood, and in her second year at Tootsuki, she credited her strengths with every battle that had been thrown in her way.

Taking this into consideration, Nakiri Erina was incredibly strong. Megumi had spent much of last year learning the ins and out of the Nakiri family's troubles. Erina had survived a childhood spent with her terrible father, the overtaking of her school by Central, the Regiment de Cuisine, and escaped from all of those awful events with her head held high and her skills sharper than ever. Megumi admired Erina almost the way she admired Souma. They had both used their strength to pull themselves out of impossibly unfair challenges, saving her and all of their friends in the process. If she could be so bold in the face of troubles, then maybe Megumi could grow to be amazing like that as well.

On this day, Megumi realized Nakiri Erina might not be handling her troubles as well as she first assumed.

It had all been a rolling ball of troubles ever since Suzuki-sensei outed himself as Saiba Asahi. Megumi almost went so far as to call it dramatic: the kidnapping, the Cuisiniers Noir, the BLUE Tournament and its challenges. Learning of the leader of the WGO, Erina's birth mother, and her vicious vendetta against her own daughter, had been a hard blow. Megumi had been swept up in it along with Souma, striking back against the inhumanly powerful chefs and the strict challenges set up between the gates. It had been daunting every step, but Megumi was sure that as long as she stuck by Souma, and Erina put up her best fight, then there was no way Saiba Asahi could succeed in whatever plans he had for Tootsuki!

Then Erina defeated Takumi in a match, and tossed away his food, and Megumi felt an arrow of doubt pierce her heart.

Maybe it was that arrow of doubt that had her eavesdropping on Asahi and Erina's conversation, hidden far in a back tent on the grounds of BLUE. She hadn't heard a thing that shed any light on the situation, but she could see a figurative twisted arm easily. He had something over her, and anything heavy enough to weigh down Erina was something she could not stand by and let happen. All she had to go by was his forward nature, his aggressive flirting, and Erina's discomfort about it.

It was that feeling, that protectiveness, that lead her to shout, "If I win, please stop bothering Nakiri-san with your courting! For eternity!"

She won against a Noir chef with that same fire, and dared to feel a little proud of herself. It fed her resolve, emboldened her stand up to Asahi directly and refuse him further passage through the contest.

It was her little bolt of pride that shattered utterly when she lost. Erina had to step in after her when Asahi started making demands of Erina's mother, and Souma had to step in where Erina started to falter. Megumi's courage was already cracked. Her pride, what little there was, was laid in pieces at her feet. Her sleep was disrupted, her belly was empty, and her understanding of what was happening to Nakiri Erina was nearly at its limit.

Then Nakiri Erina, after Megumi's match, told her that she would marry Asahi if she lost.

"What?! If you lose to Asahi-san, you'll marry him?!" Megumi couldn't help but scream. "Wh-wh- Why in the world did you make a promise like that?!"

Perhaps she shouldn't be so incensed by it, but Megumi did not entirely appreciate the withering look Erina gave her in exchange. "I-in the moment I was just so fed up with his challenges that..."

"Th-this is BAD!" Megumi could feel her voice fraying from the volume. She tried to shake herself down to a more reasonable level, worrying about anyone listening outside the door. (She could acknowledge the hypocrisy behind the idea later.) "I-I see! That's why you were so peeved during your match with Takumi-kun!"

Erina looked away, embarrassed. "Yeah. That's why."

Sporting a wide grin and seemingly no worries, Souma hooked his finger around his chin. "You know, though, that worry of yours might never happen anyway!"

It shook Megumi enough to rattle her down into her normal tone. "Huh?"

Souma reached over to a desk and flipped over a sheet of paper. With a quick smack to the sheet, he announced, "Look at the bracket! If I just win a few more battles, it'll be me versus Saiba Asahi! Things'll come to a head!"

And in that moment, something happened. It almost felt… physical, like a string being snapped, or a muscle being wrenched out of place. In that moment, pulled down by the weight of BLUE, and loss, and Saiba Asahi and Erina and Cross Knives and the WGO and… everything, something in Megumi broke.

She knew everything about this situation was _wrong_, and that included Souma.

"Wha- Souma, you can't be serious!"

Erina and Souma twisted in their seats, both of them looking at Megumi like she hadn't even been in the room before. She kept talking, clenching her fists hard enough to dig even her short nails into her palms. "Th-this goes beyond defeating Asahi-san in BLUE! Don Calma resorted to cheating- Erina was kidnapped and coerced into marriage-"

Erina cut her off. "I-I wasn't coerced! I agreed to his terms-"

Megumi snapped back. "You were harassed at the school and kidnapped and agreed only under mental fatigue and duress! You were _coerced! _Not to mention you're underage! You can't get married without the consent of your legal guardian, and there's no way Senzaemon-sensei would allow it! Have you told him?!"

"The-" Erina struggled to speak. "The- the Cuisiniers Noir operate outside of the law-"

"Have you made any attempt to bring the law into it?!"

"Tadokoro, calm down!" Souma shouted. "I'll defeat this Asashi guy and everything will be-"

"What if this is too big for a simple victory, Souma-kun?!" Megumi yelped. "This goes beyond a simple shokugeki! This isn't our schooling on the line, this is Nakiri-san's future! And she doesn't want to marry him!"

Erina's face fell. He head tucked low and her eyes on the floor, she spoke quietly. "Actually… I've been thinking on that. You've seen the strength of his Cross Knives… his ability to cook is superhuman. The food he makes is unlike anything on Earth, and with no effort..."

"Yeah?" Souma asked. "And? You're acting weird-"

"I need to explain something." Erina took a deep breath. "My ability, the God Tongue… I inherited it from my mother. When I was very young, her health started to fade. Her sense of taste, and her sensitive nose… eventually she started to hate everything about food. Tastes, smells, and texture: she could take none of it. She would never sit at the table with us, or come into the kitchen. She couldn't even stand the food I made for her, as a little girl… there was no food on Earth that could satisfy her perfect sense of taste… the same one I have.

"One day she left home, and never returned. I was about five… maybe younger. Father started to… _train me_ not long after. Even now, after all I've been through, my only hope is to make food she can eat and enjoy. Something I have never been able to do, even as a little child.

"But maybe, Saiba Asahi can. His power might be the only thing that can keep my mother satisfied… and protect me as I get older."

When Erina's face rose again, all life from it was gone. Nakiri Erina had gone pale like death. She shook like a woman starving. "I think we should just bet on Saiba Asahi's power, so we can be happy."

Megumi's heart shattered all over again. All of this… it had all gone so wrong, all because she had stepped in too late.

But… but Senzaemon could help, certainly. This was no longer solely a school matter, so… she could get the police involved! All she needed was her phone- she'd put it with her things in a locker in the food storage, it would just take a moment, and Erina could walk there with her-

Souma huffed and turned away. "Look, I'm sorry, but I'm going to defeat Asahi. You've got your own stuff going on. Family matters, right? They don't concern me. I'm going back to the dorm. Later, Nakiri."

Souma left.

Megumi had felt anger before, but she never imagined she could feel it in this degree towards Souma. She waffled at the door, dancing between staying to comfort Erina and chasing after Souma, and chasing won. She found herself shouting again, this time in the echoing hallway.

"Souma-kun! How could you say things like that to her?! Didn't you hear what she's going through?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't change my feelings." Souma ruffled out his hair. "Just makes the God Tongue sound like a pain in the ass, to me. All good for critiquing food, but doesn't let you say anything you need to say."

"What we need to say is- is- is being there for Nakiri-san! And getting her the help she needs!"

"Jeeze, Tadokoro-san, relax already." Souma threw her a smile. "I've just gotta win, that's all."

This… wouldn't work. She could hear herself in her head, going through every argument she possibly could, and Souma would come right back with that smile and that statement. She couldn't make a case against it, and for the first time in her life, she looked at Souma in a new light. She knew what she had to do to fix this- or at least she was very sure- and Souma… Souma wouldn't be with her.

Snapping her heels together, Megumi bowed. "I'm sorry, Souma! I have to go!"

She turned and ran, with Souma calling out after her. She had to find Senzaemon and stop this before it went any further, and she only had until tomorrow to do it. Maybe Hisako would know.


	2. Chapter 2

Megumi rounded a corner and slammed hard into a warm body, who hit another, and it was only their combined weight that kept them from falling to the ground. Her vision swam from blind panic before her hands found the two she ran into: Yukino and Ryoko.

"Megumi-chi!" Yuki was the first to pull Megumi back to her feet. "What are you doing out this late?!"

"_We're_ out this late," Ryoko pointed out. "Where are you going in such a hurry? The dorm-"

Struggling to catch her breath, Megumi sucked in a gasp of air and shouted, "_Saiba Asahi is __forcing __Nakiri-san__ to marry him if she loses BLUE so I'm trying to get to Senzaemon-sen__se__i to warn him so he can call the police and cancel the contest!_"

She should have guessed that Yuki would scream, because she did, and it caused a few heads to turn. Ryoko went pale in a hurry and grabbed for Megumi's shoulders. "You don't mean that!"

"I do! It's all true!" Megumi gasped. "Nakiri-san told me herself! It's awful! I've been running all over the venue trying to find Senzaemon-sensei but I can't, and Souma-kun is just going to try beating him in BLUE, but- Oh Ryoko, it's worse than I thought!"

"Wait how?" Yuki cut in. "Start from the beginning-"

"I can't!" said Megumi. "I have to find Senzaemon-sensei before he leaves the grounds! Do you know where he might be?"

"Oh I know!" Yuki raised her hand. "I actually know! Alice said that Hisako-chi said he's been staying on the grounds for the whole tournament, keeping an eye on things!"

"Both of you come with me, please!" Megumi pleaded. "We don't have a lot of time!"

They must have been a sight, the three of them. Megumi in her chef's jacket, sweating and out of breath, with her two friends on either side, storming the lavish abode of Nakiri Senzaemon, ex-headmaster of Tootsuki Academy. Hisako had let them in without a struggle, and followed them a few steps to shut the door behind them, but Senzaemon's surprised face was evidence enough of the strangeness of it all. Sitting down at his low table, papers in hand and TV long since turned off, Senzaemon did not rise from his zabuton. He merely stayed silent while Megumi gulped for air like a beached fish.

What did she address him as? She had never spoken to him so directly before, even when he was her personal judge during the Autumn Selection. She'd heard someone refer to him as Senzaemon-dono before, she thought? It seemed to work. "Senzaemon-dono! I just learned something awful! Saiba Asahi- he's forcing Erina to marry him if she loses BLUE!"

Senzaemon gave the smallest nod to Megumi. "Is that true?"

"Yes! Yes and I need- she needs your help! You have to stop this!" Megumi couldn't breathe enough to keep the words coming; every breath felt like she would turn her stomach inside-out if she misspoke. "Asahi-san can't marry her without your approval! You have more hold over Erina than her mother- legally that is- and we need to inform the police! We need to cancel the competition! Erina needs to be-"

"That will be enough, Tadokoro Megumi," said Senzaemon. "I will do no such things."

Megumi's heart made a noise. She could feel it, screaming within her chest and echoing against the insides of her skin, but the sound didn't reach her throat. No sounds reached anywhere. The room was a silent tomb, where all of Megumi's resolve burst in and blustered and guttered like a candle without air.

She was never so happy to have Yuki at her side as when she roared on Megumi's behalf. "You're CRAZY! What are you talking about?! This is your granddaughter and you don't care if she gets married off to some whacko?!"

Tempered and measured, even Ryoko fought away a stutter as she pleaded. "Senzaemon-dono, you can't mean that-"

"The conditions of the competition have been made clear," said Senzaemon. "And Erina has given her consent to the conditions. There is nothing for me to do. You may now leave my pre-"

A crack resounded through the empty walls, snapping at Senzaemon's attention and bringing his eyes up from his papers. It was nothing more than the hard whack of Megumi's foot against the wooden floor, but in the silence of night, it popped like a whip against the old headmaster's back. Megumi's face had gone red; she knew because she could feel it pounding in the skin of her ears, and flushing out against her shoulders and spine along the lining of her jacket. She could handle it from Souma, barely, but this?

"I… I am ashamed of you, Senzaemon-dono!" Megumi sucked in a breath and let herself fill the room. "How you could say such things about your own granddaughter! Like you don't even care! Like you want her out there, suffering, fighting in hopeless battles against a biased bracket! Her own mother setting her up to fail! It's like you want her to lose-"

What volume Megumi made, how much she filled the room, shrunk and withered and hid in her shadow at the presence of Nakiri Senzaemon merely standing from his seat. Yuki and Ryoko certainly did. Senzaemon approached with measured steps and slipped into his sandals with a practiced ease. Standing before Megumi felt like looking up upon a smoking volcano, not only from the sheer weight by the burning across her skin that was his force of personality. Senzaemon was a man to fear, and he had said nothing.

"You are mistaken, Tadokoro Megumi," said Senzaemon. "I must tell you that I have much respect for you, as a member of the Elite 10. If I did not, you would be on your way home as we speak."

Her throat was dry. Megumi swallowed hard. "Wi-with all due respect, Senzaemon-dono… you're no longer headmaster."

Yuki gasped behind her.

"You would dare say such things to me?" Senzaemon asked. "Knowing what I could do to your future?"

"W-with all due respect, of course!" said Megumi. "But… I-I can handle it! And I won't allow Erina to suffer- an-and I won't allow you to allow Erina to suffer!"

Senzaemon laughed low in his chest. "Then I chose you well. It was a shame you lost your bracket today. I had high hopes for all of you."

"What?" Megumi checked Yuki and Ryoko's faces. They seemed just as lost as her.

Senzaemon crossed his arms and took a long breath. "You have come to my personal chambers and defied the head of your school in order to protect my granddaughter. On the eve of the final battles, I shall offer you this: an explanation of my greater plan. Perhaps, with this insight, you shall see why I have made the decisions I have.

"Many years ago, Erina's mother, my daughter, left the household-"

Megumi nodded. "Yes, Nakiri-san-" She froze, because he was also Nakiri-san. "Er- Erina-san told us."

Yuki piped up. "She didn't tell me! What happened?!"

Senzaemon cleared his throat. "_Ten years ago_, Erina's mother left the Nakiri household. She had become swallowed up by the storm that consumes all great chefs. Lead by the God Tongue, but blazed new culinary horizons through the merciless wilds, and eventually, with no food suitable for her palate, her claws turned inward. We lost all contact with her, and she never returned.

"In my grief, I turned to my family history to look for an answer. The tale is always the same: those with the God Tongue are destined to lead the Nakiri Clan and determine the fate of food for Japan, and slowly succumb to the pressure. It is only in stepping away from food that they can recover."

"But- but Nakiri Mana-san is head of the WGO," Megumi interrupted. "She didn't step away from food at all!"

Senzaemon nodded. "Indeed. And thus, it continues to wear away at her soul. No doubt, she is channeling these frustrations into Erina. My only recourse was to train Erina from the youngest possible age to cook for herself. To forge the path of food on her own, without relying on others to bring the perfect dishes before her. From that day forward, she was enrolled in Tootsuki Academy and trained in every cooking skill imaginable.

"But that would not do alone. In order to hone her skills to the highest degree, she would need whetstones. A collection of students unlike anything Tootsuki had ever seen before, to clash and tumble against her until she was-"

"Polished like a fine diamond," Megumi finished. "The 99% of worthless rocks..."

"I-I joined Tootsuki ten years ago..." Ryoko gasped. "Mother said I was scouted-"

"I was scouted!" shouted Yuki. "At Papa's hunting club!"

"A-and my mother got a letter in the mail, specifically..." Pieces fell together, and Megumi's blood started to drain from her face. "Y-you brought us to the school-"

Senzaemon nodded. "As the finest rocks. You came to be your own jewels, in time. Your purpose has been filled beautifully: Erina now stands at the head of the BLUE, ready to face Saiba Asahi with confidence and skill."

All Megumi could see was Erina's lifeless eyes and broken face, cowering quietly in her chair, when she looked at Senzaemon.

"You..." Megumi struggled. "You… nearly had me expelled."

Senzaemon made a questioning noise.

"During the Training Camp..." Megumi's voice came out in the thinnest, cracking trickle. "I was almost expelled. My exam was engineered for failure… I was given poor quality ingredients and then failed, even after presenting a completed dish. I was brought in to improve Erina-san… and I was nearly expelled because of Shojirou-sensei's exam."

Senzaemon gave only the smallest shrug. "If you had been expelled, then you would not have been worthy of my granddaughter."

Ryoko and Yuki both swallowed hard behind her. Perhaps he didn't know about Souma's illegal shokugeki, and how even then, she had lost the challenge. Perhaps he did, and this was… no, Megumi couldn't assume hostility.

"I-if that was the case..." Megumi continued. "Why was Erina-san put in charge of admissions? I-if Souma-kun hadn't been strong enough to pass the entrance exams-"

"Ah yes, Yukihira Souma..." Senzaemon smiled fondly. "Erina failed him. I had to retrieve his application and override her failing grade."

"You could have done that at any time?!" Yuki screamed. "You were going to let poor Megumi-chi fail but you gave special attention to Yukihira-chi?!"

Megumi cut back in. "And her treatment of the research societies! She had dozens- maybe hundreds of students expelled because she didn't approve of their cuisines! Were they-

"Only those who could serve my plan was given my attention," defended Senzaemon. "Hayama Akira and Kurokiba Ryou were even brought into the country under my influence. I would spare no expense to make sure I did not lose my granddaughter-"

"So you made her run the school?" Megumi snapped. "So you put her in charge of admissions, and dissolving research societies based on her personal tastes?! She's sixteen and she's the headmaster- Is this protecting her from the storm? Is this supposed to keep her from leaving-"

"Everything Erina does improves Tootsuki Academy!" Senzaemon only just raised his tone above speaking, but it seemed to roar through the whole building. "Everything she has learned, everything she does, is in service to this place! She carries the burden of the Nakiri line on her shoulders, and if she is to survive, then she must learn to be like the Nakiri clan before her! I don't care if the other kids' prides are swallowed up by Erina! I don't care if a few clubs lose their buildings! I'm fully aware that this arrogant plan of mine favors my own family! Whatever the cost, whatever the sacrifice, my only concern is that there is hope for Erina!"

"If you're so concerned," shouted Megumi. "Then why aren't you _helping_?"

"If you're so insistent, then why-" he shouted back, "Did you _lose?!_"

Someone gasped. Megumi's head snapped around.

Hisako was standing in the door. Megumi hadn't heard her come in. No… she hadn't heard her leave, at all. Her gut went cold in horror. She must have been there the entire time, listening.

Three long seconds, no one spoke, waiting for the silence to break. Hisako stood frozen in the doorway, eyes wide, shaking. Senzaemon did not move. Yuki shivered with unreleased tension like a beast in a cage, and slowly, carefully, Ryoko reached out and took Megumi's shoulder.

"Megumi..." she pulled, gently. Every word was carefully measured, and spoken so the room could hear. Each one felt like fingers on a live bomb, delicately defusing it. "We should be going now. It's late."

"Yes… we should."

Her feet didn't move. Ryoko pulled a little harder, and Megumi forced her feet forward like she was wading through thigh-deep concrete. Her heart pounded in little broken pieces all over her chest. Her breath came from the other side of the world in thick, uneven gasps. Yuki wasn't managing much better; she could distantly hear Yuki snarling and resisting in Ryoko's other arm, but no words came out. Ryoko scooped Hisako into the same arm as Megumi, and the four of them waded out into the dark of night until the door shut tight, and locked, behind them.

There they stood in the parking lot, in the back venue of BLUE, at eleven at night. Mosquitoes buzzed their ears. Cars hummed by on a distant road.

Yuki broke away to stomp and scream and roar at the moon.

"WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Yuki shrieked. "I work with animals every day and I've never seen such a knee-deep pile of BULLSHIT IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!"

"Yuki-chan!" Ryoko gasped. "Language!"

"It… all feeds in..." Megumi whimpered.

Ryoko pulled Megumi into a gentle hug. "Megumi..."

"It all feeds back into the school..." Megumi could barely feel the arms around her. Her vision was almost gone, lost to the fog of her imagination as she began to tie the ends together. "I can see it all so clearly now; Erina runs the school and makes the approved curriculum with the God Tongue. The student body is eliminated, little by little, until only one percent remains… that one percent is almost completely re-hired back into the school, as teachers or managers of the resort properties, all answering to Erina..."

Hisako sucked in a breath and continued, "Erina determines the student body, the faculty, the curriculum, the menu, what dishes are considered acceptable, what research societies are allowed to continue practicing-"

"And it all leads back into Tootsuki." Megumi's sight filled back in, taking in the massive scope of the grounds around her. "All of the tuition fees, the tourist money coming in from the resorts and restaurants-"

"All controlled," said Hisako, "Eventually entirely, by Erina."

"This isn't about protecting her from the storm..." Megumi's throat clenched. "It's only about grooming her to withstand it for as long as possible..."

"Until she gets married and has her own children."

"And it all starts all over again."

Yuki wailed, "That is _so messed up_!"

"H-hang on, now!" Ryoko pulled away and smoothed down Megumi and Hisako's flyaway hairs. "Children taking over the family business is nothing bad- I was sent to Tootsuki so I could take over my family's pickle shop. Maybe this isn't as bad as it looks-"

"Except he's not running a business!" Yuki argued. "He's running a school! We aren't paid laborers, we're students!"

"This- this is so much," Megumi panted. "There's so much, and now Senzaemon won't help us. What do we do? We can't allow BLUE to just continue like this, and the match is tomorrow afternoon-"

Hisako cleared her throat and stood at her full height. It was like she'd unfolded from the background, finally brimming with commanding energy after having it knocked out of her by the sheer force of Senzaemon's confessions. "Everyone, give me your phones. I'd like you to meet me at the headmaster's office in an hour. There might be something we can do instead."

Megumi's next breath almost came in cooler, as if she was breathing in life instead of the balmy midnight air. "You think so?"

"For all the power Senzaemon-dono used to have, he's not the headmaster anymore," Hisako explained. "Technically, as a combined unit, all of you in the Elite 10 have more power than even Erina-sama."

"But Souma-kun wants the contest to move ahead..." Megumi admitted. "He thinks he can defeat Asahi-san himself. He won't go to anyone for help. I… tried..."

"Oh ow, Megumi-chii..." Yuki whimpered. "You asked him outright?"

"I did..."

"Well then, he's not really an option anymore..." Hisko said with a sad sigh. "Much like Senzaemon-dono… Here, you'll need these three passcodes and a permission code to get into the office. Remember, one hour. Drink tea, change your clothes, take a nap, whatever you need to do. I'll get together what I can and see what we can do for Erina-sama without either of their help."

Megumi took Hisako's hands and squeezed tight. "Thank you so much, Hisako-san..."

"I should be thanking you, Tadokoro-san," said Hisako. "For doing what I haven't… been able to do. I'll explain more when you get there. I think I need a coffee..."


	3. Chapter 3

It was a frantic dash back to Polar Star. Megumi only just caught a whiff of mirepoix as she bolted past the kitchen doors and up the stairs. Yuki and Ryoko shouted to each other through their walls, muffled from the distance, while Megumi hurriedly toweled off the worst of her sweat and changed itno her gardening clothes. It would be mortifying in any other context, barging into the headmaster's office wearing grass stains and the previous morning's smell, but it would have to wait until later. She spilled out into the hallway to find Ryoko and Yuki already there. Ryoko, even in her 'don't mind if they smell' cltohes, looked beautiful. Yuki didn't bother matching her outfit, and her pants were obviously her butchering clothes. No verbal confirmation needed; once they all had eye contact, they leaped for the door.

Souma called out from the kitchen. "Guys! Where are you going? Tadokoro!"

Megumi froze for a split second. The words were there on the tip of her tongue. They were leaving to find Hisako, they were going to help Erina, they would end BLUE before it got out of hand again-

They fizzled on her tongue with a sour sting. To what end? He had already made it clear he didn't care. Would he tell them to give up? Be angry for denying him his opportunity for victory?

She didn't know, and she ran.

The office was big and grand, yes, when they reached it. It took a lot of passwords to get in, yes. Everything was very fancy and Megumi could get a good look at it all later. Right now it was all she could do to shoulder open the door and stumble inside. Hisako was already there, catching her with a strong, tanned hand.

Megumi's brain lagged behind, but thankfully Yuki was there to compensate. "Nikumi-chi! What are you doing here?!"

Ikumi's eyes and voice went wild like a woman who had been sleeping. "Shut up and don't call me that! I hate that stupid name!"

"I'm sorry..." Megumi pulled herself upright and slowly regained her focus. Ikumi did look a touch more lively than them, but little clues painted a picture in her mind. Ikumi's hair had been combed through with her fingers. The straps of her top sat uneven. She had put on a touch of makeup, but in a hurry. Megumi found herself bowing. "I didn't mean to wake you."

Ikumi startled and let go, unconsciously fussing at her hair. "No- it wasn't you. Arato-san called."

Hisako made her way into the little crowd and started passing out cups. "Tea. Tea. Tea. Drink. We're going to be looking through a lot of records, so I need you at your brightest."

"Agh, I remember this stuff from Hokkaido!" Yuki held her cup away from her like it was a tiny live volcano. "I hate it! It tastes like stolen youth!"

"What are we looking for?" asked Ryoko.

"I..." Hisako pulled away. She was only just more presentable than Ikumi, and Megumi could tell that came from being inside all day. She must have been awake for hours past her usual bed time, drinking that bitter red tea and worrying. "I don't know. I thought if I could find a precedent in Tootsuki history for canceling the tournament, then we could buy a little time in order to- to… I don't know. Make more plans, or contact someone- Someone who would make this all stop!"

"That'll be hard..." Ryoko assessed. "Senzaemon-dono is Nakiri-san's legal guardian, and even he doesn't want to see the tournament stopped."

"That's why it's up to us." Hisako waved Ikumi over. "Miito-san knows some of the archiving system, and the rest of you, I'll put on the Tootsuki history books, Nakiri family logs, and Elite 10 meeting minutes. Find anything you can about outside conditions that have stopped shokugekis, selections- even things that closed the school! Whatever you can!"

It started so hopeful. They got into the fine details of the records, though, and after half an hour of searching, it began to go bleak. Tootsuki Academy closed for nothing. It stayed open for earthquakes and tsunamis. Selections continued when the students collapsed from overwork. Shokugekis were only canceled by forfeit, never by the school. Yuki and Ryoko began to droop in their chairs at forty minutes. Megumi put down her books and took a long, slow breath.

"I never realized Tootsuki was so serious about its curriculum..." she admitted to the room. "I mean, I knew, but not to this extent..."

"I've known," Ikumi mentioned. Buried deep in a record book, she didn't look up. "Back when I was in league with Nakiri-sama, she would put me in these rule books. I had most of the shokugeki conditions memorized, down to the special restrictions and rare exceptions. I could pick out which research societies were good to clear out at a glance, and get them to sign into unwinnable shokugekis within a single meeting."

"Miito-san..." Megumi asked quietly, almost ashamed to do it. "Do you regret those days? Being part of the Don Society… has it changed your perspective at all?"

Her eyes stayed down, but they stopped tracking the words on the page in front of her. Ikumi collected her thoughts and breathed carefully. "A little."

"But…?"

"Being in Don Society isn't the same as being one of Nakiri Erina's closest," Ikumi explained. "There was a pride that came along with it, knowing that I was one of the very best in the school. The entire academy at my beck and call… I could get away with _murder_ if I wanted to. Say whatever I wanted, wear whatever I wanted, cook whatever I wanted… Nobody dared to raise a hand against me when I was in league with Nakiri-sama…

"Now, being in Don Society is like a race to the end of senior year. Like I'm being attacked at every angle by every other student at Tootsuki… I'm under no delusion that my time as a research society assassin left me with no enemies..."

Hisako's voice quivered when she spoke. "I felt that as well, when I lost the Fall Selection. When I lost to Hayama Akira, all I could feel was… well, I guess I felt a lot of things. Shame at disappointing Erina-sama, yes, but also… terror. That if I wasn't good enough to be the second-best at her side, then… what was I good for? I wasn't safe among the vicious rabble of the regular Tootsuki students. I was just like the _rest_ of them."

"No longer the best," Ikumi summarized. "Just one of the rest."

"That's awful..." said Megumi. "To think of your friend abandoning you just because of a slipping grade..."

Hisako shook like a leaf. "I was… under no impression that I was Erina-sama's 'friend' until… very recently. My family has worked for hers for generations. I've been under Erina-sama's direct employ since we were in kindergarten."

"So you've been…"

"A secretary." Hisako nodded. "For most of my life, and I was grateful for the privilege… I've actually been taking care of most of the headmaster duties for the school since Erina-sama's kidnapping."

Megumi stood in her seat. "What?! This entire time?!"

"Classes need to continue..." Hisako shrugged, helpless. "Otherwise we risk upsetting the board of directors."

"Board of directors?!"

Ikumi cut in. "The managers of the resort chains, hotels, restaurants, research centers; basically everything else owned by Tootsuki Academy. The head of operations for all of these things is Nakiri-sama."

"At least, it is normally," said Hisako. "Once she became headmaster she took on the duties-"

"Which are now your duties!" Megumi shouted. "YOU have been running a giant industry for the last week by yourself?!"

Hisako had nothing to say to that, instead 'answering' with a shocked, blank look at Megumi's outburst. It woke Ryoko and Yuki out of their cat naps, and left them staring in shock.

"This… I can't believe I've never considered this before!" Megumi shouted to the room. "Hisako-san… I can't tell you how ashamed I am that I've never seen this before! You are sixteen years old! This is a time of our lives that should be filled with joy and laughter… with making friends and memories to last a lifetime!"

"HEY YEAH!" Yuki screamed. "THAT'S RIGHT!"

"I've experienced so much because of my position in the Elite 10, a position I have because of Souma's skills, not mine..." Megumi choked on a breath, and what spilled out of her mouth was a cracking sob. "And while I traveled in comfort, you've both been here suffering in silence-!"

"Megumi! Megumi…" Ryoko pulled her into a tight hug and mashed her face into her shoulder. Megumi barely withheld her sobs. Hisako was working so hard, and Ikumi was so alone, and now she was going to get Ryoko's nice clothes all wet… "Sssh… It's okay, it's okay, you're just tired..."

"Just because she's tired doesn't mean she's not telling the truth!" said Yuki. "The more I learn about this, the more I don't like! I've been saying for YEARS now that Tootsuki takes what should be amazing trips and cool student gatherings and turns them into torture sessions of ruthlessness and cold-blooded… cold-bloodery!"

"But Tadokoro-san, that's..." Ikumi stood out of her chair and reached out, but couldn't quite bridge the distance over the table to Megumi's shoulder. "It's nothing personal… that's just the way Tootsuki is-"

"And look at it now!" Megumi cried. "Look what it's done to Nakiri-san! She's in so much danger, and her family doesn't care! Souma doesn't care! WE care, and we can't do anything!"

The exhaustion, the heat, the loss, the sheer frustration… it all came out in powerful, wracking sobs on Ryoko's shoulder. Megumi collapsed onto her. Years of sobbing in solitude, hiding in kitchens late night away from her friends, all whipped back from the past and came out through her eyes as if the tears were fresh and new. Yuki surrounded her from the other side and held on tight, and she bawled for what felt like hours. She must have ruined Ryoko's shirt… someone passed her a handkerchief and she wiped her nose on it to keep herself from snorting. It had a savory smell… not spices, more of an umami. Ikumi's handkerchief, likely, and the tender coil that wrapped around her heart sent her into another fit of tears.

She pulled herself together, and through the fog in her vision, she checked the wall clock. It was past one in the morning, and all four girls surrounded her where she sat on top of Ryoko on the floor.

"I'm so sorry..." she sobbed.

"Don't be." Hisako reached out and held her hand. "It's okay."

Megumi sniffed hard. "Excuse me… I won't fix anything by crying..."

"No, but..." Hisako squeezed her fingers. "This will sound so silly… but someone as strong as you shedding tears for me and Miito-san? It… opened my eyes a little."

Ikumi made a little noise to clear her throat. Her eyeliner was running, and Megumi felt a fresh well of tears starting up again. "I don't think my own parents have worried about me this much since I started here."

"Tootsuki Academy has never closed once, in the entire history of the Nakiri family..." Hisako stated. "But… I am Arato Hisako. As acting headmistress of Tootsuki, in Nakiri Erina's absence… I'm suspending all classes until the conclusion of BLUE."

"Do you..." Megumi whimpered. "Think it will help?"

"I have some ideas..." Hisako stood on shaking legs. "But I need to sleep on them."

"I need a bath..." Yuki moaned.

Ryoko nodded. "I need a change of clothes..."

Tears flowed down Megumi's face. "I'm sorry..."

"Miito-san..." Hisako straightened her jacket. "I'm going to arrange a driver to bring our guests back to Polar Star dormitory. Can you please accompany them for the night?"

Ikumi saluted. "Yes, ma'am!"

"I'm going to make some more phone calls, and meet with you all in the morning. And Tadokoro-san?"

Hisako stepped forward and pulled Megumi into a hug. "Thank you."


	4. Chapter 4

All she had in the morning was evidence they had made it home. She had no memory of showering or changing into a nightgown. Her mouth tasted like she had brushed her teeth, so she must have, but the memories weren't there at all. Megumi could only wake up in her room, wrapped tightly in Yuki's arms with Ryoko and Ikumi on the floor, and assume she didn't just collapse through the front door last night.

Perhaps she should say early morning instead. She checked her bedside clock and nearly panicked when she read 8:45 a.m. Hisako's words piped through her mind in a soothing echo: "I'm suspending all classes." She was fine.

Now… it was time to get back to work.

The rooms speaking pipe rattled as someone grabbed the other end. Isshiki's voice came through in its familiar tinny warble. "Tadokoro-san? I hear signs of life out there. Are you awake?"

He must have been listening very closely if he could hear her wake up. How loudly should she speak? She didn't want to wake the others. "Um… I am, Isshiki-senpai."

"Fantastic!" he said. "You'll want to come downstairs before your breakfast gets cold. Go ahead and wake up everybody else, and get dressed."

How did he know?

On second thought, she proably knew the answer to that. He had made them breakfast, though. Isshiki could be so sweet when the mood took him.

The dining room table was set for more people than usual. The extra guests had taken up their seats already: Hisako sat and numbly ate her bowl of natto over rice with Alice and Ryou both on her left side. The other students of the dorm- all of boys, Megumi noted with a giggle- were half-way done by the time Megumi and the girls (plus Ikumi) sat down. Only Souma's seat sat empty.

"Isn't this just wonderful?" Isshiki chirped. "All of us together, eating breakfast as a family, without classes disrupting our brotherly bonding-"

"Cut to the good stuff!" Alice shouted. "Tadokoro! Look at you, going around stirring up trouble!"

Megumi nearly jumped out of her skin, much less her chair. "Me?! Trouble? N-no, I just went and talked to Senzaemon-dono-!"

"I heard you called him out to his face!" said Alice in a manic tremolo. "I heard he called you a loser and kicked you out!"

Ryou took a sip of tea. "She heard half of a phone call to her father."

Daigo pounded the table in glee. "That's still AWESOME though!"

"Yeah!" agreed Shouji. "Our little Megumi standing up to the establishment!"

Hisako took a sip of tea. "I _am_ the establishment, currently."

Ikumi nearly snorted into her soup.

Alice rushed a mouthful of rice and went right back into her point. "And you got classes suspended, too! This is perfect! Tadokoro-san, I'm joining your cause!"

"My… cause?"

"I've felt that hovering shadow of the Nakiri line my whole life!" Alice explained. "Erina's always had all the luck: born into the main bloodline, born first, with the God Tongue- that could have been me out there! By all rights, it should have been me, since my father is a Nakiri and Erina's father just took the name-"

"H-hey!" Megumi interrupted. "This is about Erina-san and getting her out of a forced marriage!"

"Exactly!" said Alice. "And if it wasn't her up there, it would be me! And I wouldn't allow myself to be treated that way, would I, Ryou-kun?"

Ryou had finished his breakfast. "You're being outrageously self-centered, my lady."

"And you are being entirely too truthful!"

Isshiki leaned over and beamed at Megumi. "Megumi dear, your breakfast is still getting cold."

Megumi gasped. She and Alice were the only two with food still in their bowls. The rest of the table had finished whiel she had been… captivated by Alice. Megumi grabbed for a dish and dug in, and Alice dove for the opportunity to talk uninterrupted.

"We have our goal: to stop the BLUE tournament from proceeding so Erina doesn't marry the fake professor! Failing that, we murder the fake professor!"

The entire table nearly upended. Everyone leaped to their feet at the same time, shouting different words and harsh language mixed in with genuine terror and some indignant anger, all boiling down to the basic thought of "No. No murder."

Unbothered, Alice did not change her stance. "It would probably be easier to kill him than cancel BLUE! Tootsuki is really only the venue; they'd just move if the school decided to not host it."

"That's the problem I ran into last night," added Hisako. She took her seat, already looking tired again, and the Polar Star dormitory all began to take their seats.

Alice continued. "I mean, there's always Yukihira-kun. If he wins, we don't have a problem. I don't think he even wants to marry Erina."

"I don't think that's true..." said Megumi. "Th- the first part, I mean. This forced marriage is a big problem, yes, but the larger issue is how the Nakiri family is exploiting Erina-san. Her position as the headmaster, using the God Tongue to determine 'good' cooking, the unfair conditions of her schooling… and it's a family history of it!"

Alice made a low, warning sound. "That's messing with Aunt Mana business. Getting involved with family matters is trouble~"

"You fought against Azami-san with us!" countered Megumi. "What affects the Nakiri family affects the school, and it all falls down on the students! All of us here, at this table now, are here because of Senzaemon-dono cheating the system! How many of you were specifically scouted, or referred, or adopted to get into Tootsuki?"

The entire table but Alice raised their hands, and even after checking around her, Alice raised her hand anyway.

Megumi nodded. "Even now, innocent people are being hurt, friends and loved ones, and for what? Because Nakiri Mana has a grudge against cooking? Because Erina-san believes she deserves beign a child bride because her only other choice is to starve to death?"

Ryoko chanced cutting in. "And the 'second part'? Yukihira?"

"Wha- oh." Megumi paused. She had to rewind a little to remember but… yes, Souma and… Erina. She didn't want to say it out loud. It hurt a little, in the back of her heart. Today was a day of truth, though, even if it hurt. "I think… Souma-kun is another part of the problem. He means well… this is his way of looking out for Erina-san, who he cares about very much. I think his pride… his ambition to hear Erina-san praise his work has blinded him to all the awful things going on around him. He wouldn't want us to interfere with his battle. All he wants is a fair fight."

The table went silent. There it sat, the truth, laid out among the empty bowls and tea cups. There was no plan to stop the BLUE. There was no way to stop Yukihira from competing. There were no magic words to make Senzaemon relent.

Ryou spoke up. "Revolution."

Megumi asked, "Wh-"

In a flash, Ryou's headband lashed around his hair, and he roared to the heavens. His rage proved too much for his chair, and it flew backwards as he stamped to the floor. "REVOLUTION! No more will the students suffer at the whims of the elite! Change resides within the people! MY EASTERN EUROPEAN BLOOD ROARS IN MY VEINS!"

"Eastern European my ass!" Alice swatted him. "_Kurokiba Ryou-kun_, found in a pub in _Denmark_."

"Tadokoro Megumi." Ryou pointed at her, and Megumi felt a resolve grip at her heart and squeeze tight. She stood to match him. Her skin tingled. "Do you want change for the benefit of the people?"

"Y-yes!" she piped. "Yes I do!"

"Do you want to rescue your princess from an evil marriage?"

"Woah!" said Yuki. "Phrasing!"

"Yes!" said Megumi.

Fire burned in Ryou's eyes. "And are you willing to stand before the beasts of Hell to do it?!"

"Yes! Again!" shouted Megumi. "Again and again, to protect my friends!"

"Then you are the spear of our revolution!" said Ryou.

Daigo stood at the table. "Yeah, yours is the drill that'll pierce the heavens!"

Shoji stood up right alongside him. "Oh captain, my captain!"

"This is getting exciting!" Yuki jumped to her feet and beat on the tabletop. "We should make a manifesto and pin it to the gates of Tootsuki!"

From out of the quiet, still seated and spinning the spoon in his soup bowl, Shun said, "People drive through those gates. Nobody would see the manifesto."

"Shun-chi, could you _not_ knock the wind out of my sails, for once-"

Hisako gasped. "I only suspended classes! Clubs are still open!"

This was all so intense. Megumi's head was starting to swim. "Clubs?"

"The newspaper club should still be open!"

It was Alice's turn to gasp and stand. The dishes around her rattled as she trembled with glee. "We can print an expose! And publish it on the school budget!"

"We can send it ot the parents, too!" Ikumi cut in. "They have to have something to say about the shokugeki biases around here!"

"Will that get BLUE canceled?" asked Megumi.

Ryou whipped the headband off. Tired and level-headed, he admitted, "Probably not. That's more the beginning of getting people to care about the big problem."

Shun added again, "And they won't read the paper if they're busy watching the BLUE."

"That's it!" Alice pounded her fist into her palm. "We take both our problems and roll them up into one BIG problem! A great big problem onigiri, with the sour refreshing Megumi at the center!"

"Don't make me an umeboshi!" Megumi cried. "Sour?! At least explain yourself!"

"A surprise competitor enters the BLUE tournament!" narrated Alice. Back turned to the table, she spread her arms out as she pictured the scene. "Facing the victor, she stands, the head of the Spirit of Tootsuki movement! All of the hopes and dreams of the average chef lie in her hands-!"

Megumi could practically feel all those hopes and dreams resting on her shoulders. "That's a lot of weight!"

"At that point, victory or defeat, it doesn't matter!" Alice explained as she whipped back around to the table. "All that matters is that you shove everything wrong with this whole debacle right in everyone's faces at the same time!"

"And it has to be me?!"

Zenji laughed from his spot. "The Refusal of the Call in action."

"You're the one who spoke up first!" figured Alice. She shrugged. "Besides, if I did it, my motives would be questioned. Anybody else here would be doing it just because I told them to."

Ryoko nodded. "You're our best choice, Megumi. People like you, and listen to you- if anyone here is completely unlike Erina-san or Yukihira-kun, it's you."

Isshiki leaned onto the table. His blithe smile had never changed, even during the wild conversation and various table upsettings. "Isn't a good breakfast wonderful? We all started off so tired, and now we're planning a coup of the BLUE. If class wasn't suspended, I'd be tempted to stop all of you from being so disruptive."

It all felt so… nebulous. Megumi pulled away from the table chatter to collect her thoughts. They had to gain the approval of the students and enter her into the BLUE tournament after her loss but before its completion. How would they do that? Call an emergency shokugeki? What could she bet that was of equal weight to Erina's entire life? Would she be the stake? Would the school be the collateral? Even getting in would be the hard part. "Um… what's to keep them from kicking me back out of BLUE?"

Alice was quick to answer. "You'll have the support of the school! With a huge chunk of the student body supporting you, they won't be able to say no! We'll put your last-minute challenge in the paper!"

"But how will they know to support me?"

"Because they'll read all about the injustices you're fighting!"

"Where?"

"From the-" Alice froze. "From the paper."

"Which isn't printed yet," Shun pointed out.

"And it's 10:00 a.m.," said Isshiki, "With the club closing at noon for lunch..."

"AH!" Yuki hollered. "We gotta hurry there! The people gotta KNOW!"

"Everybody to their bikes!" yelled Daigo. "I can do doubles!"

The dining room had never cleared out faster in the mad dash for the bicycle shed. All of Polar Star, plus guests, racing out of the garage on a fleet of bicycles might have been the oddest sight of the morning, while only Isshiki stayed behind, refilling his cup of tea in the window.

"Ah..." he hummed. "Youth."


	5. Chapter 5

For all of the important information they needed to get to the student body, the first words out of Megumi's mouth probably shouldn't have been, "What do you mean you don't close for lunch?!"

It got them a few stares. They were already looking fairly odd, the entire group of eleven-or-so students trying to cram into the newspaper club's entrance while everyone else milled about aimlessly. Megumi's short outburst after Hisako asked if they'd made it in time only made them stick out that much more. It also didn't help that newspaper club was technically housed in the middle school section of Tootsuki grounds, away from all the hype of BLUE, so it was a pack of eleven-or-so sleepy looking unruly highschoolers pounding on the newspaper club's door demanding to know why they _weren't_ closed.

Still, Souma's little middle school friend Sotsuda Mitsuru was patient, even if he did give them an odd look. "I mean we don't close for lunch. We're not an official research society, just a club. Who told you we closed?"

She could perfectly see Isshiki sitting alone in the quiet dormitory having a second breakfast in peace. Megumi was halfway between furious and proud of his cunning. She restarted. "Sorry- we need to speak to the editor! We have very important information about the BLUE! Is there a teacher we can talk to?"

Mitsuru raked his hands into his hair. "If it's about the betting pool, it's pretty much over..."

"Oh move, you little peon!" Alice shoved right into the office, towing Ryou behind her. "We've got way better than that!"

Hisako and Megumi both waffled at the door as the rest of the dorm, and Ikumi, shuffled inside. Mitsuru disappeared into the throng, and helpless to stop it, Megumi locked up and whimpered.

"Please-" she pleaded, "Behave..."

Hisako similarly lost a good bit of nerve and stayed frozen next to Megumi. "No intruding on a club room please..."

From out of the milling crowd, a voice cried out. "Arato-san! I must have a word with you, this instant!"

"Oh no..." Hisako's hands flew over her hair and jacket to straighten up. "Professor Shiomi."

For such a small woman, she sliced through the students like a skewer. Akira in step behind her, radiating peace, was the perfect counterpoint to Professor Shiomi's small but peppery rage. Megumi hadn't seen her so mad since their first meeting, but it fell in line with what she knew. The only thing that could work the little woman up to this degree was academics. "Arato-san, please arrange for me to speak with Nakiri-san immediately! I demand to know why my lectures have been canceled!"

Meanwhile, matters of office work were right in Hisako's comfort zone. Standing proud and proper, Hisako bowed low and explained. "I'm very sorry, Professor, but due to urgent business involving the BLUE, I deemed it necessary to suspend all classes. I take full responsibility for any inconveniences."

"This is more than an inconvenience!" Shiomi snapped back. "I have international travel plans after the semester ends! I can't afford to have a school closure interrupt my schedule! And why are you making that decision? Where is Nakiri Erina-san?"

"Professor Shiomi..." Megumi asked. "Do you not know? About the BLUE tournament?"

Akira answered for her. "I declined to participate in BLUE. We haven't been keeping up with it."

"Erina-san is being forced to participate," said Megumi. "And the consequences, whether she wins or loses, are dire. We're trying to help however we can!"

Akira gave half a shrug, flippantly waving the concern away. "And why does that matter? If she accepted the challenge, then it's her responsibility to deal with it, not yours."

"But it isn't right!" Megumi set her shoulders. "The conditions she's in are unfair! They're flagrantly biased against her! She's been set up to fail, and if she does, it will affect everyone in the school! If she doesn't, then her family will continue to use her for their own ends!"

"Conditions at Tootsuki are supposed to be unfair," Akira argued. "Challenges lead to growth. And Tootsuki making use of people is no great secret. It hires alumni, uses students for labor, and makes profit off of their leisure time from festivals and food sales."

A coil of heat wrung at Megumi's gut. "And you think that's acceptable?!"

"I think that it's not any of your business," said Akira. "Merit is the ultimate deciding factor in who succeeds in life and who fails, and Nakiri-san has proven herself to be the Best out of all of us. I've seen both sides of the school, from Central to rebel to Elite Ten. What Azami-san did to us was a fluke. Everything else in life is determined by our efforts, and nothing else. It's not up to you to change it. Now, about getting classes started again-"

Megumi felt the coil snap, and it popped against her stomach and leaped up into her heart, and out from her mouth. "_You can only say that because Senzaemon-dono specifically brought you here for Erina-san'__s benefit__!_"

Hisako and Shiomi both jumped, Hisako going a little pale. Students were definitely staring now. Some were pulling out phones. Akira gave little away, but his eyebrows hiked, and his mouth hung open by the faintest sliver. Megumi took a few quick, heated breaths to recover her temper, but no one spoke.

Alice's head popped out of the door. "Oo~ that's just what we need for the interview! Tadokoro-san, we need firsthand accounts!"

"_Gladly!_" Megumi gave Shiomi and Akira the hardest, sharpest bow she could before turning on her heel. "_Excuse me!_"

Hisako and Alice were perhaps a little too quick to pull Megumi into the building, and her anger broke with a self-conscious bolt of fear when Alice locked the door behind her. She checked their faces out of the corner of her eye. Hisako and Alice were sharing an alarmed look. Ashamed of herself, Megumi turned and bowed again. "I'm very sorry. I didn't mean to-"

"No! No, no," Hisako said. "I was surprised about Hayama-san. I would have thought he'd be on our side-"

"Were you?" said Alice. "Because I was totally giving you a look for Tadokoro-san."

"Alice!"

Megumi bowed through her tears. "I'm sorry..."

"Don't listen to either of them." Ryou's voice hung heavy at the end of the hallway. He leaned against the door frame leading into the club building's main room, separate from the rest of the Polar Star gang and newspaper club and Ikumi. Poor Ikumi, getting pulled along in all this mess… she was getting distracted, and Ryou was still talking. "I knew Hayama wouldn't be one of us from the start. Come, tell them what you know."

"Yeah!" Mitsuru clutched at a pen and paper in his hands, ready to write. "What's that you said? About him being brought here for Nakiri Erina's benefit?"

"I… Yes. Let me start from the beginning."

Megumi didn't take a seat. Hisako and Alice were given first claim to chairs, and they took the last two. Standing with Ryou in the doorway, Megumi recounted her entire experience with the BLUE, from Asahi-san's forged paperwork, to Isami's kidnapping, to Erina's confession, to her encounter with Senzaemon. She wandered in some places, where the club asked for her near-expulsions, Central's devious tactics against Souma's shokugeki for the dorm, the Hokkaido examinations. The newspaper club were all attentive listeners, thankfully, and asked questions, while Hisako kept her on task and tapped wildly at her tablet computer. She must have told stories for hours, although when she checked the clock it had only been about an hour and a half.

"This is a goldmine!" Mitsuru announced to his club members. "We could make a headline out of Hayama and Kurokiba alone! You said they were brought in by influence?"

"That's the word he used, yes," Megumi answered. "But I don't know what it implies..."

"It implies bribe money," said Ryou. "And skipping a lot of important paperwork. I've checked; legally I have no reason to be in this country. I'm not adopted, nor do I have any documentation outside of school paperwork."

"You don't?!" Alice shouted. "And why are you looking up your own paperwork?!"

"Do you think Hayama was smuggled in too?" asked Mitsuru.

Hisako turned her computer to face Mitsuru. "Not exactly. There's a Professor Hayama that's since retired from Tootsuki. He was the head of Professor Shiomi's department at the time he was admitted into the school. But upon checking his records, he doesn't have much else besides school documentation, just like Kurokiba-san..."

"He smuggled people..." Ryoko held her head in her hands. Steadily, just from the weight of all the information coming in from Megumi, she started to fold in her chair. "He smuggled children into the country..."

"Solely so they could potentially form a challenge for his granddaughter, so she wouldn't bail on the family like her mother did," Shun assessed.

"You know the more I learn about the Nakiris, the more I'm kind of proud her mom walked out of the business," said Ikumi. "But she should have taken Erina-san with her! What kind of mother just leaves her children?!"

The conversation began to drift, and Megumi breathed a little sigh and leaned against the opposite side of the door frame. Ryou had been quiet, just watching the proceedings without adding much. She spoke low, so she wouldn't interrupt. "Kurokiba-san-"

"Ryou," he said. His eyes never left the table… or, no. His focus was on the wall, past the table, just to the right of Alice's face. "It will do."

Megumi had been given a very special gift. She could feel it in her heart. She could feel it in her _ears _with how hard her heart was beating. She waited to speak, because whatever she was going to say left her at the new privilege she'd been given. "Ryou-san… when you said Hayama-san would never be on our side..."

He nodded. "You wouldn't know, directly. You're content with your spot in the tenth seat. Hayama and I battle frequently to test our worth against each other, and against Yukihira."

"Right."

"That is the purpose of Tootsuki," Ryou explained. "To have worth. In the pub where I cut my teeth in cuisine, I survived solely by my worth. I proved myself worthy to the kitchen with my skill, and worthy of respect with my fists. To be worthy was to be alive."

Megumi took the chance to say the hard conclusion to that statement. "So if you couldn't do those things, you were worthless. If you were worthless..."

"Then I had no reason to be alive. That was the harsh world of my childhood, and that is the curriculum of Tootsuki. To live by merit alone is to live a harsh, cruel life, where the ones around you crumble and fall into the black abyss. The underlying message of every year, of every generation of chefs at Tootsuki, is the same: 'If you are of no use to us, you have no reason to be.'"

Megumi said, "For what it's worth Ryou-san, I don't believe that for an instant. I believe you have the right to be happy, even if you're not the very best."

"I know you do, Tadokoro. I fear Hayama, underneath his skill, has taken that message into his soul. Yukihira, as well, only cooks for his pride. The elite of Tootsuki, all the way up to the headmasters, are filled with people who think the same as they do. We are both lucky, to have fallen into the wake of the powerful. You, with Yukihira. Me, with Miss Alice."

"-and would that even make headlines- hey wait!" Alice ripped away from her conversation, suddenly tuned into her name being spoken. "What was that?! Ryou, do you honestly think if you stopped being a good chef, I would throw you away?!"

Ryou nodded. "Yes."

Yuki and Ikumi, along with a few other members of the newspaper club, chuckled at the absurdity of it. Most of the talk didn't even pause.

Everything went dead silent as Alice stood and slammed the table with her palms. "_What did you say_?"

If someone had waved their hand over Alice and magically pulled away all her joy, all her laughter and energy, and left her Nakiri blood to fill up the empty space, then _that_ was what stood there in that moment. Megumi wasn't entirely sure it was the same person. It was like someone had formed a golem of ice and pain and shaped it into a small girl. Alice's gaze somehow pierced Megumi and everyone else in the room, but it never left Ryou's face, and Ryou never flinched.

"That is the nature of the Nakiri family," Ryou calmly explained. "Arato and Miito sit here plain as day as examples. Your grandfather is more than willing to sacrifice the futures of thousands of children for the sake of your cousin. Your aunt threw away her entire family out of frustration, and even now she's using her daughter to settle a grudge."

Alice said nothing. Ryou must have been expecting her to; the silence was deafening. Megumi quivered.

"I will gladly champion your side of the cause, Miss Alice," said Ryou. "It is for the good of the people. But I never deluded myself into thinking I was more than your toy person, to match Arato."

(Hisako sunk low into her chair to hide.)

All Megumi could think was to ask herself why this was all happening. Why Ryou had felt a need to speak so bluntly where he had obviously never done so before. To share that kind of feeling- because what a painful, vulnerable, awful thing to think about oneself- with a room full of strangers.

She didn't have much time to think. Alice was rounding the table with even, quick steps to cross the room and make it to Ryou-

Megumi stood between them and shook, and understood. If he had given her this trust, and this precious thing to hold… then she would hold it tight and make sure it wasn't hurt. She was the spear of the revolution, to protect the souls behind her, to make sure that no one grew up into men broken by battle like Kurokiba Ryou.

Ryou voiced is approval behind her. "Very good, Tadokoro Megumi. You were chosen well."

Alice laid a hand on her shoulder. Her voice was nearly inaudible under the strain of controlling it. "It's okay. Let me pass."

Megumi knew that exact tone. She stepped aside and let her pass.

"Uuuh..." Mitsuru gathered up his papers. "Who wants to join me in the computer lab to work on page layouts?"

"Oh me!" Yuki stood up first. "I am crazy excited to work on that thing you just said-"

The room vacated quickly to a shuffle of feet and chairs. Megumi was the last to leave, and only moved after Alice pulled Ryou down into a hug and sobbed on his shoulder. Dumbfounded and thoroughly confused, Ryou shot Megumi a look. She only gave him a little nod and a polite smile before leaving to join the others. They could work it out. Megumi could recognize that hoarse whine of trying not to break down crying from a mile away. Alice cared, perhaps more than she'd ever thought to actually tell Ryou.

She felt a little tickle of pride; and she had been the vehicle that let it happen!

She was feeling better about this whole revolution idea. They just needed that paper published.


	6. Chapter 6

Publishing the paper was going to be a problem.

Alice and Ryou came back from their little reconciling session with puffy eyes and running eyeliner and a panic to their steps. Alice was the one to throw the door to the computer lab wide open. "I heard Tadokoro-san scream! What happened?!"

Megumi wailed, equally teary and much more distressed. "They're making me into a gossip rag!"

"Look, it's not about gossip, it's about human interest!" Mitsuru objected. "And you're a human interested in Mr. Yukihira! There's nothing embarrassing about it-"

"As if!" Yuki snapped. "Erina-chi and Souma-chi have been giving each other lovey looks since Hokkaido-"

Ikumi pounded her desk. "No he hasn't!"

"Look, even if he did," shouted Hisako, "Is now really the time?! Do you want to compromise the whole movement for this- we're trying to make real change at the school here!"

Mitsuru's hands flew over the keyboard. "Nakiri-san's secretary protests, citing her own interest in Erina as-"

"Hey, HEY, don't think I don't notice that phrasing! You leave my feelings out of this!"

"Citing her own feelings in Erina as-"

"I COULD HAVE YOU EXPELLED-"

It was true, all horribly true. Megumi and the gang had left the two friends to make up, and spent a goodly amount of time making sure the page layouts were eye-catching and easy to read. It was all going so well. So smoothly…

All Megumi had said was… something. She didn't even think about it at the time, just something to the effect of "so Erina and Souma can be happy together".

Suddenly the article had headlines like "TADOKORO FIGHTS FOR ERINA'S HAND," "THE LOVE TRIANGLE OF TOOTSUKI," "10TH SEAT ENTERS BLUE FOR THE LOVE OF THE HEADMISTRESS," and everything started falling apart. The computer lab and Polar Star divided into camps, some insisting that Megumi was fighting for Souma's benefit, some raging that love had nothing to do with anything, a very insistent majority saying that Megumi was jealous and pursuing Erina romantically, which annoyed the Issues camp, which annoyed the Girls Love camp, which infuriated the Elite 10 Together camp-

Which, finally, annoyed Ryou.

"EVERYONE SHUT THE HELL UP!" he roared, headband in place. "WHAT ARE YOU, A BUNCH OF GOSSIPY CHILDREN?!"

Mitsuru answered, "We're _the middle school newspaper club_!"

"THAT WAS GODDAMN RHETORICAL AND YOU KNOW IT, YOU LITTLE SHITHEAD!"

"This is all irrelevant anyway!" Megumi wrung her hands into her shirt over and over and over again, just trying to think. "Let's try to stay on task! We need a clear, concise list of what we want eliminated from the school's curriculum-"

"Wait, we already did that!" said Ikumi. "What we're working on now is the list of bad business practices that make Tootsuki a terrible financial institution-"

"Wait, you're still on about that?!" said Hisako. "The financial side of the manifesto can be settled out after the affairs of the school!"

"Don't forget the Miito family is one of your biggest business partners!" said Ikumi. "And my parents don't care about the testing criteria, they care about their bottom line! That's the only way we'll get them reading our demands!"

"Oh, and that's what the students are gonna care about?" said Mitsuru. "Financial minutia and testing qualifications?!"

Shun took a sip of tea. "To be fair, a lot of students will care about their tests being fairly graded."

Zenji nodded solemnly. "Azami-san was popular as a headmaster for a reason..."

Megumi could feel the seams of her shirt straining. "Guys, there's no reason we can't put all the information in there-"

Somebody in the newspaper club shot up from her computer. "Says the one who doesn't have to type it!"

"And determine the page layout!" said another.

"In two hours!" said the last one.

Megumi, put in her place, bowed. "I apologize..."

"Oh my god!" Alice whined. "Paper this, page layout that- just blog the thing already! Don't you have a website?!"

"We can put a paper directly in people's hands," said Mitsuru, "Not to mention a paper doesn't have to compete directly with a crybaby seal."

"Oh I love that one..." Alice trailed off. "He's all 'AAA-aaah! Egg.'"

Alice and Yuki both trailed off into repeating seal noises at each other. Megumi sat down hard and dropped her head into the nearest table.

"I just want everyone to be happy..."

"You had to say it..." Ikumi chided. "You had to say 'I just want them happy together'."

Megumi piped back up, mindless of the big red spot on her forehead. "I do! Souma-kun's doing his hardest to make Erina happy, but with his cooking! His cooking won't solve manipulation and years of family guilt and abuse! And even if they do make their lives together, if we don't change Tootsuki, then their children will suffer the same fate!"

Daigo parroted in his best dramatic movie voice. "_Suffer the same fate_!"

"Coming this October!" Shoji joked back. "To N.H.K.!"

Yuki piped up. "Would N.H.K. even air that? That seems more TV Tokyo."

"Speaking of N.H.K., does anyone have the remote? I wanna watch Lunch-On."

"Lunch-On's so annoying-"

Ryou roared. "_FOCUS YOU RAT BASTARDS YOU ONLY HAVE TWO HOURS!_"

Megumi laid her head down again, more gently this time. "I just want today to be over..."

"Don't forget," Alice said while massaging her shoulders. "You have to challenge whoever wins tonight's tournament to an emergency shokugeki."

Daigo laughed again. "The shokugeki to end all shokugekis!"

Shoji stood on a chair. "COMING THIS FALL! TO TV TOKYO!"

Megumi whimpered. "I wish I'd never said anything. I just want Souma-kun to be happy."

"Happy with his nice little wife, Nakiri Erina, huh?" Alice huffed at the idea. "I can picture it now." Alice stood up and did her best Erina impression, which involved hurriedly stuffing her bra with the bottom of her shirt and puffing out her chest. "YUKIHIRA-SAN THIS WEDDING CAKE IS ATROCIOUS! YOU BEAT THE MERINGUE FOR 0.0000022 SECONDS TOO LONG! IT'S DISGUSTING! REMAKE IT!"

Shoji laughed so hard he fell off the chair, as did more than a few members of the newspaper club, and Zenji.

Hisako pouted. "Erina-sama would make her own wedding cake, of course."

It was Yuki's turn to wrap a folded newspaper around her head (and hold it back with her free hand) and impersonate Souma. "Nakiri-san, I challenge you to a shokugeki! Winner makes the wedding cake! Our theme shall be wedding cake!"

Ryou growled. "This is the stupidest thing I've ever seen."

Daigo stood on a different chair. "This cake is so delicious MY BODY CAN'T TAKE IT!" He threw off his shirt with a flourish and the sound of an explosion, then vainly tried to cover himself up. "Oh noooo it was so good I'm naked now!"

There was a part of it that hurt. Megumi had long ago acknowledged her feelings for Souma-kun and then… quietly put them away, where they wouldn't bother anyone. Seeing everyone so assured of Souma and Erina's 'happy' life, including herself, would normally send her into a dark, quiet mood. But the stress, and the tension, and all the businesses of the day along with the lack of sleep, and now this?

She was starting to crack, and she laughed into the table.

Yuki bounded over to her side and picked her up by the shoulder. Still in her Yukihira guise, she held took her hand back (the other was still holding up her newspaper headband) and mimed holding a pair of chopsticks. "TADOKORO-SAN I need you to sample my test recipe of squid-flavored wedding cake with peanut butter frosting! The secret ingredient is rice and that ginger you get from take-out gyudon!"

She couldn't even cover her mouth in time. Megumi cackled at just how true it all was, right down to the rice, and she collapsed into Yuki's side in a fit of giggles. The entire room, plus Ikumi, was starting to collapse into rib-shattering giggles.

Mitsuru leaped to his feet, shouted "TASTES SO GOOD", and threw off his jacket with an explosion sound, and the laughter started all over again. Even Ryou finally started to laugh, although his smile was more like baring his fangs than actually grinning. Even he got in on the gag by shedding his coat. "DELICIOUS!"

Alice threw open her blazer after pulling it out from under her bra. "DELICIOUS!"

Megumi was sure she was glowing. Her heart felt so pure and light after all this laughter, and the joy her friends had infused into her after these dark days. She pulled her jacket open as well. "Delicious!"

Yuki-hira stood proud. "I will never admit defeat-" and then she threw off her newspaper headband and her sweater to fall over, dramatically "naked". "OH NO IT IS DELICIOUS and I'm defeateeed!"

Professor Shiomi cleared her throat. "Let's reign ourselves in before we all strip naked, please?"

The shuffle of every chair scraping against the floor at once was only drowned out by the students' collective screams. Everyone piled against the opposite wall, all jackets and shirts immediately thrown back on. (Daigo's was backwards.) Standing at the other entrance to the computer lab, administrative key in hand, was Professor Shiomi and Akira, backed by Professor Hinako and Professor Chapelle. In fact, just behind them were quite a lot of teachers, most from the middle school classes that Megumi hadn't seen in years. Hinako politely giggled, to break the tension. "My my! How spirited! Almost makes me wish my classes were this fun!"

"What are you doing here?!" Hisako shouted. "Classes are suspended!"

"Well..." Professor Shiomi pocketed her keys and clasped her hands together. "At first I just called a few teachers to better make my case for Nakiri-san's attention, but…"

Professor Chapelle took over. "We have been listening at the door for quite a long time. We have come to join The Cause."

Megumi gasped. "The… cause? Wait, but- Hayama-san-"

Akira shrugged one shoulder.

"It was my idea."

Coming from the back, splitting through the crowd of professors, Doujima Gin stepped forward, and suddenly everything made a little more sense. Megumi had long known Professor Doujima's charisma and presence was more than enough to change a roomful of minds. She sighed in relief and grinned. "How much have you heard?"

"I, perhaps, know even more than you, Tadokoro Megumi." Doujima folded his arms tightly. "I have spent years witnessing the effects of Tootsuki on its students, faculty, and family. But never in its history have I seen someone so soundly attempting to change the status quo."

Yuki raised her hand. Doujima nodded. "Yes, Hoshino."

"Azami-san."

Doujima smirked. "Touche. I will rephrase: attempting to change the status quo for the betterment of the entire student body, and not for personal ulterior motives."

He cleared his throat. "We are here to offer our services. Our hands, our voices, our evidence to your cause. We will have this paper in the hands of students by the beginning of BLUE, and by parents even sooner."

Megumi gasped. "But how?"

Hayama held up a thumb drive. "Mailing lists and emergency contact numbers."

Mitsuru tapped his forehead. "Oh yeah, we don't have those..."

"Everyone, to a computer!" ordered Doujima. "Newspaper club, you are our editors and supervisors! Tell us what we need to write!"

Mitsuru perked up. "We can split into teams! Three papers; one for-"

Hisako caught on and piped out, "-stockholders, one for parents, and one for students! Yes, perfect!"

In the shuffle, Megumi made her way to Hayama. "Hayama-san… I was so angry with you, I..." She bowed. "I'm sorry."

He only grunted.

"What made you change your mind? If I may ask..." She bowed again. "If you don't mind, that is! I'm very sorry!"

"… I became aware of how lucky I was." Akira's eyes fell to the floor. "And how selfish I was being. Whatever. I'm here to help now."

Shiomi bounced on her feet. "Oh, I'm so happy to see Akira doing things with his friends again!"

Megumi bowed one more time. "Thank you. Thank you so much."

It was zero hour. She had to steel herself for re-challenging Souma and Asahi-san. It would be a tense few hours.

They could do this together.


	7. Chapter 7

Life was full of small injustices. Megumi was used to entering stands and hearing the jeers of her peers. For whatever reason, over and over, crowds hated her, and anyone associated with her. Lately, this meant Souma. Souma, for all his charisma, never found himself liked by the majority crowd. Maybe he was just like that. Maybe his personality didn't match the natural gravitas of Erina. She wasn't sure.

All she knew was she expected screaming, booing, hissing, the throwing of trash, and received none of it. From here in the wings, she could see Asahi and Souma exchanging words, but could barely make out a word or two. That was the amazing thing, that she could hear at all. The stands were almost all silent, murmuring low with the whispers of a thousand onlookers.

The paper had spread, and news had traveled. The crowd was primed and ready.

She just had to step out there.

She could do it.

So why wasn't she doing it?

"You can do this, Megumi-chan." Ryoko squeezed her shoulders. "We have to make our way to the stands soon. We'll be behind you, every step. We know the script-"

"Please don't call it a script..." Megumi quietly painted her palm with "person" to soothe herself, but never swallowed it. "All the words are rearranging themselves in my head… I'm afraid I'll leave something out."

"You can do it!" said Yuki. "We're all behind you!"

They were all behind her, literally. They hovered back, ready to dart into the seats and show themselves publicly in support. She couldn't see any of them. She only had their voices to go on… and her panicked mind almost made them disappear, like they'd run and abandon her before she ever began.

Those were her nerves talking, she told herself. She wouldn't let herself fall for her fears.

"Oh man, when she faces Erina..." Yuki thought aloud.

"You're jumping too far ahead," said Ikumi. "Just be brave, Tadokoro. Give them something to think about. Let them run themselves ragged, then attack them while they're exhausted!"

"Why IS she announcing this now?" asked Alice. "And not in the final round of the match?"

"To build momentum," explained Ryou. "For the movement. We talked about this."

"Well I didn't hear, I was cooking for all of you-"

Megumi sucked in a breath. She could hear feet.

"So. What are all of you doing here?"

The rest of her friends panicked and chattered this latest twist amongst themselves. Joichiro was here. Not only here, he was behind her- behind them- having snuck up from the back of the house and apparently planning on making the same dramatic entrance as she was. Or maybe he wasn't, maybe he had gone to the bathroom and this was the closest way out into the field. Who even knew? Megumi was too scared to turn around, even while his steady footsteps approached and Joichiro calmly stood beside her.

"Tadokoro Megumi, right?" he asked. "Souma talks about you sometimes. 'My friend with the braids,' he says. Talks about how you're all polite and apologize a lot. You're pretty rude, I'd said, not even facing me to say hello... Looking pretty intently at my son over there. Planning on doing something today?"

Had he read the paper? He must have; he was on the mailing list of parents. She nodded.

"Let me tell you something, Tadokoro." Joichiro brushed a stray hair away from his face. "Just between you and me… well that's not true. A few people other than you know this… but I never planned on sending Souma to this school. I spent the worst years of my life here. The constant pressure and cutthroat politics nearly sent me into an early grave. When Senzemon finally got me to cave in and admit Souma, I figured he'd come to school, make a few friends, find a girlfriend, get flunked out on a fluke and pick up his life where he left off. The old man Senzaemon just spilled the beans to me last night about his plans for you kids, to use you all to groom his granddaughter into a meaner, tougher, better-cooking son of a bitch than him. Even after I leave the school, he's still finding ways to use my family to his own ends… all the way up to this day. I started getting a feeling that was his plan during the Hokkaido drama… and here I am now, thinking maybe that was my cue to stop it all… and I didn't.

"I read your little newsletter, typos and all. What you're trying to do is big, and a little hopeless, and pretty damn crazy. Sounds like Souma every day. Look at you… you and my kid going at the same thing in entirely different ways, all so a friend of yours isn't stuck in the same pit of obsession that cost her both her parents. Both of you are braver than I am in ways I could've never imagined. I dropped out of school and had a kid at 20. You're gonna look the world in the face and make them change.

"Hey, Tadokoro… Whatever hell you go through, and however much you've suffered because of a pigheaded mistake me or Souma made… I'm sorry. You have free food for life down at the diner. Okay?"

Megumi nodded. Her chest felt like concrete and her heart was pounding in her ears, but she nodded. When she rolled her shoulders and popped her neck, it was like snapping rebar through her bones. The solid weight… it made her feel invincible. Immovable. It made her feel like if she fell in over her head, she would drown, never able to reach the surface again.

She took a long breath. "I'm ready."

"Let me head out first." Joichiro strode forward. "I want to see the looks on their faces when this unfolds."

A shuffle of feet left behind her, shouting their last encouragements before taking up their seats. Nakiri Mana began to speak, and Megumi began to move forward.

"In this world, there are a set of disciplines known as the Five Great Cuisines. Opinions vary on which of the five those are, but French, Chinese, Turkish, India, and Italian, these five genres have at least been very influential in cooking."

It sounded arbitrary to Megumi. The sun burned her eyes as she entered the stadium. Metal groaned and fabric shuffled en masse as heads turned to look at her. She had the hall… but not Souma or Asahi or Erina. Their heads stayed up, watching Mana speak through her shade.

"Your task is to prepare all five. Condense the five great cuisines into one dish, and bring forth the ultimate in gourmet fare! That is your task!"

Asahi laughed and reached into his holsters. "HA! From my cross knive-"

Joichiro raised his hand. "Yo. You're all missing something important."

There went the crowd again, like lasers burning every pore of her skin individually from space. Everyone- now really everyone- turned to stare at her.

"Tadokoro?!" Souma shouted. "Where have you been?! I've been looking for you for two days!"

"This is one of the failures of the tournament," said Mana from above. "Have her removed from the grounds immediately."

"I w-won't let you!" Megumi stood, hand to her chest, and let her voice fill the grounds. "My name is Tadokoro Megumi, and I am no failure! I stand here _before_ the failures!"

The crowd gasped. Joichiro grinned.

Asahi waved a knife and pointed it at her nose. "Who dared to let her in here?!"

"The failure of the teachers to provide equal opportunity for the students they're responsible for!" she continued. "A failure of the Nakiri family to provide for their own! The failure of Nakiri Senzaemon to protect the well-being of the people who serve him!"

"Tadokoro, what are you talking about?!" said Souma. "You're wasting our cooking time here!"

Erina said nothing. She just stood, aside, quiet, dead-eyed and stagnant, saying nothing for herself.

That, particularly, stabbed a red hot needle into her heart. From out of the wound, fire surged up and burned at her throat. "The stakes of this battle have already been made clear: should Nakiri Erina-san lose this tournament, then she will be surrendered to Saiba Asahi as a child bride, with the eager consent of her mother and grandfather."

A ripple of shock and disgust went through the crowd- or no, maybe it was scandal. It was one thing to read these facts, all laid out neat and tidy and sterile, in a school paper. It was another thing to see Erina rip herself out of her fugue to stare at Megumi… in a way she'd never seen before. She'd never seen that raw burning intensity, neither anger nor shock, but both, but nothing at the same time. Raw emotion without direction. A blank.

Senzaemon was a bit more composed, standing to his full height from his seat. "That is enough, Tadokoro Megumi."

"As Erina-san's friend and a student of Tootsuki- no! As a person!" Tadokoro's voice pitched, and she could only make it even again by shouting. "As a woman who knows right from wrong-"

She had to be quick. Security guards were moving in from both sides. She pointed to Asahi.

"I challenge the winner of BLUE to a shokugeki!" she announced. "My conditions are this: should I win, the marriage is off, and Tootsuki Academy will renounce all high-stakes shokugekis in perpetuity!"

The security guards faltered at the massive shriek that went up from the crowd.

"Th-that's crazy talk!" Souma cried.

"You're bluffing!" Asahi laughed. "I'd accept on the spot, were there a collateral big enough to fit it!"

"There is!" Megumi thumped her chest again. "Should I lose, then I resign from Tootsuki Academy. I will not leave, nor be expelled: I will _resign_, taking all of my grades and my tuition with me. And so will everyone who stands in support of me!"

Nakiri Mana laughed, and the laughter was the only noise in the stadium.

Until feet started to fall against concrete.

"Oh captain, my captain!" Shoji shouted from the stands.

Daigo echoed him. "We believe in the we who believes in the you who believes in yourself!"

She could count them all, in her head. The entire Polar Star dormitory, plus Ikumi, plus the newspaper club, plus Alice and Akira and Ryou. Megumi could almost tell the instant that Hisako stood in the stands because Erina's eyes tracked straight to her, and her jaw dropped in shock.

It was when people started standing in the seats across from her, rising in little pockets that turned into waves, like mushrooms sprouting in the grass, that she continued to speak. "This is our official protest. I only act as the mouth of the students, who are tired of our futures, our self-worth, and our skills being controlled by the whims of the Nakiri family. This is our stand against their injustice, both those who are here and those who are watching from home, or out in the campus continuing their passions."

It must have been a good forty percent of the crowd, standing with her. "That is my collateral. Do you all- Asahi Saiba, Yukihira Souma, and Nakiri Erina- accept my conditions?"

Senzaemon spoke. "I refuse."

Erina choked. "Grandfather!"

Souma and Asahi, quietly tucked away their knives, although Asahi pouted and crossed his arms. Senzaemon spoke above the crowd. "This is a paltry sum of students. Those that stand here are those that would fail and be gone by next month."

Now Megumi was certain the crowd included Hisako, because Erina went pale enough to glare in the hot stage lights. "_Grandfather_!"

"I agree with the old man," said Mana. "I have no need for the worthless rabble who admit their own defeat, behind the back of a weak little girl."

"Tootsuki has no use for the likes of these worthless individuals," said Senzaemon. "They exist only to grind the survivors into the finest diamonds! And if they are content to admit their worthlessness before us, then they can leave immediately!"

Megumi shook in her shoes. Nobody had expected this, during the practice runs. Souma wasn't saying anything. Erina wasn't saying- nobody was saying anything. Her vision started to fuzz around the edges. The crowd was rippling in the stands…

No…

That wasn't her vision. More people were moving.

The world came back in sharp relief. More people were standing, in a massive wave that fluttered like the wings of a million butterflies. It was… more. Sixty, maybe seventy percent… no… all of them. Everyone in the stands!

Senzaemon was losing his composure, aghast at the number of students standing against him, when Doujima left his side and stood forward on the grounds.

"I add myself to the ante," he announced. "If Tadokoro Megumi should lose the shokugeki, I will also resign from Tootsuki Academy."

Joichiro flipped his hair. "Have a position at the diner open for you. Could use a new bus boy."

Doujima grit his teeth. "Joichiro _shut up_."

"I-I..." Megumi swallowed hard. All of these people, and now at least one professor, were relying on her. "I reissue my challenge! Do you accept the terms of my shokugeki?"

Asahi snapped a knife out of his holster. "Yes! Now please, can we get on with this?! This just got so interesting, I'm actually _hungry_."

"I-I..." Souma said. "Accept."

Erina said nothing. Not a thing. She only nodded.

"You can't say anything about this, Senzaemon," said Joichiro. "You aren't in charge of the school. Besides, since when have teachers ever stopped a high-stakes shokugeki? I thought the students were in charge of themselves."

Mana's fan snapped hard against… something, behind her screen. "I am getting bored with all of this waiting. Your timers will be reset. You have one-hundred eighty minutes to prepare the dish I have assigned. Begin."

"NOW!" Asahi flew into cooking. "Behold my cross knives, Souma- Souma?"

Megumi hadn't moved. Instead, Souma broke away from the cooking arena and met her while she was coming down from her shaking fit.

"What the hell are you doing, Tadokoro?!" Souma shouted. "I've got this! You're coming in and betting the entire school to destroy shokugekis?! What's gotten into you?!"

"I-"

"And against me?!" he continued. "If you're that worried about beating Asahi, then- don't be! Just don't! You could have challenged him to a normal shokugeki- we're after the same thing here!"

"Y-you-" Megumi's throat wrenched. "You- You're just as much of the problem as he is, Yukihira-san!"

She was getting good at this, simply… yelling at her problems and running the other way. She turned hard, just missing the brush of fingers across her arm, and dashed down the hall and into the darkness of backstage. Turning once one way, twice another, doubling back and hiding in a bathroom to throw off her trail, she breathed into her sleeve to cover the sound of her panting and heaving breathes. Another dash brought her to the vending machines, and after one more sprint… the empty green room, set up with a camera and a live feed. Completely empty, almost sterile despite the full trash can and the crumbs on the floor. She could… hide, here, until the end of the match. She supposed, in truth, this put her shokugeki against…

Against both of her two greatest friends… off until tomorrow…

The chairs in the green room were old and creaky, and the springs were too stiff in the back and too loose in the seat, and Megumi fell into it nonetheless to cry into her knees.


	8. Chapter 8

If Megumi was going to make her final stand tomorrow, then she needed to study her opponents, and she couldn't. Her hands wrung uselessly in her lap whenever she tried to concentrate. The green room TV was so small, and so… cubical. It was a wonder it didn't have a flat screen, considering the extravagance so common in Tootsuki. The seats were lumpy. The trash bins were unaligned with the chairs. Eventually, just to give her hands something to do so her brain could stop paying attention to them, she raced to the nearest vending machine for a can of oden. The salty umami was a comfort against the action onscreen.

Between Asahi's boasting and Soma's quiet pondering, Erina could only be caught in short glimpses through the stadium camera. Megumi could assume she had a fairly firm grip on her cooking style. She took standard dishes, added gourmet techniques and modern gasronomy, and made them unique. They never strayed far from the established, though. Megumi knew it now for what it was: her father's cooking. She had been trained to replicate his sense of taste, to make a true, official Standard. Tootsuki enforced these standards, but encouraged creativity and signature dishes…

The two ideas made no sense on their own. It certainly didn't reflect in Erina. The younger Nakiri, from her first year in the high school division, was very firm on weeding out any kind of cuisine that wasn't "haute" enough, such as donburis and chanko. She had no sole signature, preferred ingredients, or common methods. She would be the hardest to battle, should the tournament come down to her.

Megumi vacantly sipped the last of the broth from her can. Her heart ached. All of this tension must have been hurting her so dearly. The fate of her family traditions on her shoulders, isolated from her friends, and unable to find solace in something so simple as comfort food.

The thought made Megumi pause. She contemplated her can.

From her younger years to now, every single day, three times a day or more… what did Erina eat? Was all food brought before her to be judged? What did she cook for herself? For all of Hisako's knowledge of traditional medicine, did Hisako ever cook for her?

She texted Hisako. "This question might seem silly", it read, "But what food does Erina-san like? What does she cook for herself?"

Hisako's phone replied automatically with "Busy", so Megumi pulled her mind back inward. Her phone beeped again immediately after, though, with a flurry of messages. "Why?", "Where are you?", "Wait there", and finally "Need to hear this" before going silent again. Megumi gave Hisako a few seconds before telling her she would be waiting in the green room.

Back to the match. Asahi was wielding his vast array of knives and tools at inhuman speed, pouring with sweat out in the stage lights. He cut a strong figure out there, with his fashionable hat and glowing skin. If she detached herself from what she knew about him, he could be handsome. She understood why he remained popular even with his associations to Le Cuisiniers Noir. His Cross knives would be near impossible for her to defeat on her own… He trounced her thoroughly with only two knives, and here, he faced Yukihira with seven and still counting.

No… she couldn't let herself think that way. She could win this. She only had to use her greatest skills, something that couldnt' be compressed into the handle fo a knife. She had her empathy and sensitivity and her heart.

It was a skill she shared with Yukihira.

Her heart sunk. The possibility of facing Yukihira in a cooking battle wasn't new. The potential had been there many times, but it had never been this direct before. Yukihira now declared his intended dish: fried rice. Megumi almost smiled. He had the same train of thought as she did. In a battle of skills, he would make comfort food. He would probably win with a creative twist on a dish mothers made for their children.

Megumi gasped. She had to be onto something. Twice now, she had gone back to-

The green room door burst open to a flurry of sound and movement.

"Nobody move!" Daigo burst in, rolling into a crouch, brandishing a… nothing. He only pointed like he was holding a gun. "Secure the perimeter!"

Shoji fanned out the opposite way, and at least _he _was holding a spatula. "Check all surfaces for listening devices! We got a live witness! Everybody down!"

Where did he get a spatula? Megumi was so confused…

The atmosphere made slightly more sense at the next "guest" through the door. Hisako lead in Nakiri Azami, who looked entirely unhappy to say the least. Only Jouichiro's firm grim pon his shoulder seemed to keep him in check. On further inspection, though, Jouichiro's smile was a little too tense to be anything but a strong warning. Isshiki coming from the rear and firmly shutting the door behind him confirmed it.

They wouldn't be here for no reason. Megumi couldn't even find the strength to be nervous. All she had done was ask what food Erina liked to eat, and they brought her Erina's father… this conversation wouldn't stay to comforting topics. She only sighed and gave her best smile. "You wanted to see me?"

Hisako nodded. All business again, her face stayed even and surrendered nothing. Not blank, like Erina's, only controlled. "He has information that might be useful for the upcoming match."

"That and he just has some explaining to do," Joichiro shook Azami. "Don't you, Nakamura-san?"

A pointed silence followed. Everyone was expecting someone to speak.

"Come on, guy." Joichiro's fingertips dug deeper into Azami's shoulder. "Just tell her what you were telling me. You were happy to share it before."

Azami growled. "I refuse."

"You'd better un-refuse," warned Joichiro, "or we're telling her for you, with extreme prejudice."

Megumi was sure she was going to wilt. "Everyone, please. Is all of this necessary?"

"It's insight into Nakiri Mana," Hisako summarized.

"… of course." Megumi straightened up her back. "BLUE tournament isn't about impressing the judges or defeating the final competitor. Erina's mother has turned it into her personal revenge round-"

She understood why Daigo and Shoji were on edge now, when Azami made a sharp motion to break out of Joichiro's grip. All five of them snapped to attention, grabbed a body part of Azami's, and forced him down into a chair.

"I would ask that you treat my dear kohais with respect, Azami-san," said Isshiki with a flinty smile.

"I won't let you speak of Mana that way..." Azami took a long breath, and the thread of rage that tightened his body slackened. "You have no idea what she has suffered through."

It was maybe a good thing that she was tired. It let her engage rather than lock up and listen. "I've gained a very good idea of it through Erina-san."

"I improved her life," Azami said. "Erina was not raised in the same way Mana was. All generations before her were sent to live abroad from a young age. They tasted the cuisines of the world, learning bite by bite what food food was supposed to be. They are waited on hand and foot, and come home fully prepared not only to oversee, but to teach what is true gastronomy."

Something… stuck out. Megumi asked, "Azami-san… are you telling me Erina-san is the first Nakiri ever to know _how to cook_?"

Azami nodded. "After Mana left the family, I knew I had failed. I spent my life after Saiba-san's fall immersed in a dark, joyless void. Mana became my purpose in life. I cooked endlessly, striving only for one thing: for her to say my food was delicious."

Megumi's blood ran cold.

Azami continued. "I was never able to do it. I had the drive… but never the power to save her. I had to teach her, starting as young as possible, the foods her mother could tolerate. Only then could she make the kind of dishes that would bring her mother back."

Joichiro crushed his shoulder again. "See now, old friend? That wasn't so hard, was it?"

Megumi nodded. "So that's how it is. Hisako-san, you seemed to have the same thoughts as me. Mana-san is the central figure we need to reach, for this to end well."

Hisako nodded. "This entire event is about Mana-san."

"But I wonder..." said Megumi. "How much we can really do, appealing to her directly. Her mind seems very firmly set."

"Yes, but she is still Erina-sama's mother. She will strive for her approval at any cost."

Megumi nodded. "I'm not sure Mana-san has approval to give. If she can't spare any for Erina-san..." She pulled her legs into her chest. "Everyone… I thank you so much for all your efforts. You've worked so hard for Erina-san… If she could see you..." She chuckled. "In truth, if she saw you all working so hard for her benefit, she would probably be very confused. It's almost funny..."

"Hey, if it helps," Joichiro said, "I'm here because I can't stand an unfair fight."

"I must apologize..." Megumi stood. "But… I must humbly request I be left alone until after the results of the tournament tomorrow. I will be battling Yukihira-san and Erina-san both."

"You won't succeed," Azami stated. "You can't hope to stand against the heir to Tootsuki. Even if you do, then you will destroy everything that gives her life meaning."

Megumi only gave him the gentlest smile. "Sorry, Azami-san, but I believe you're quite wrong. I also believe you would be more comfortable returned to your seat in the stadium."

"You got it, Boss." Joichiro hoisted Azami up to his feet. "All right, let's put him back with Senzaemon so they can both watch from the bull pen."

Daigo rolled out commando style. "Secure the perimeter!"

Shoji ran after him, forgetting his spatula. "Cop stuff!"

Megumi waved Isshiki and Hisako over to her, before they left. "Are both of you okay with moving the plan ahead by a day?"

Hisasko pulled out her phone and checked. "Everything's been in place for the last few hours. We can have everything else set up by morning, or at the latest, during the opening of the battle. We're set to go."

"I sense a determination that wasn't there before, Tadokoro-san," said Isshiki. His permanent smile dropped by the slightest degree. 'Or perhaps, a resignation."

"It's… a lot to take in. That's all." Megumi wrung her hands at the hem of her jacket. "I suppose no matter which way the BLUE ends, it benefits us… I wish I had done something sooner, before it all came to this."

Isshiki's laugh huffed up from his chest and through his nose. "Of maybe you could have only done it now, after all the pieces came together."

"Maybe..."

Hisako bowed. "We're all proud of you, Megumi."

The air hang heavy.

"Oh!" Hisako balked. "D-did I call you Megumi? I'm so sorry, Tadokoro-san!"

It made her laugh. It was a relief, knowing she wasn't the only one tired and slipping through her public face. The laughter rang hollow in her own ears, though. Somebody else, who looked like Megumi and talked like Megumi, laughed while the real Megumi existed in a fog somewhere in the near future. The borrowing Megumi used her body to bow and bid her farewells until everyone had left. It was only then that Megumi returned to herself, and sank into that strange springy chair, and watched the end of the cooking contest. Souma won, using an internation fried rice inspired by his late mother's cooking. Erina and Yukihira would be her opponents tomorrow.

She sat, comfortable and unmoving in her chair, as Yukihira told stories about his mother to the crowd.

She had her meal, and with it, she…

She needed another can of oden.


	9. Chapter 9

The final battle was not made out in the stadium. It was in a small, private kitchen where Nakiri Mana had total, direct oversight. Megumi only learned where it was via texts from Hisako, and the door only opened because she kicked and beat on it until the guards opened them for her. There, Mana sat behind a screen, and Erina and Yukihira stood at their stations, and Megumi demanded that she be given a setup and allowed to battle them both at the same time.

She had been applauded before, but only when she lost. It was a weird thing to think about in this moment, when Erina and Yukihira both gave her withering looks. They were tired of her. She was being noisy and whining and complaining, she knew.

But there were cameras in the room, and an audience she couldn't see outside, and she could hear them screaming and cheering through the walls, and she felt just a little better. That sense of failure lingered in her heart, though, because they only cheered when she lost. Maybe it was all in her mind. Maybe the only unhappy faces were the ones in this room, herself included. Mana's couldn't be seen. Yukihira's was blank behind his usual pre-cooking determination. Erina showed nothing but a faint anger. Megumi wondered if she knew them anymore. They were so different than when this had all begun.

She received her workstation, grabbed from a nearby closet no doubt. Smaller than the other two's, about the size of an apartment kitchen. Megumi nodded. She could work with this. It actually suited her long-term goal perfectly.

Mana gave only the tiniest huff of breath. She was too proper for an indignant sigh. "The judge for the final round is me. The theme is… 'A Dish Never Before Seen On Earth.' Proceed with caution. Begin cooking."

That was Mana's selfish desire, then. To experience food she had never before. What could she make to fit that lofty goal? What could be so novel, delicious, and satisfying that six-thousand years of human history had never so much as touched upon it?

She couldn't. No one could. What Mana wanted was failure. This was all it came down to: yet another rigged Tootsuki test. Erina was already cooking, but what, she couldn't tell. It seemed to be just a flurry of processes rather than an identifiable meal. Yukihira was watching her, quietly, ignoring Megumi as she assembled her ingredients.

He quickly checked her main pot. "What boring cooking."

Erina's eyes were running with tears. Megumi's heart burned with rage.

Megumi started her meal. She knew just what Erina and Mana needed to eat. What they needed to hear, however, was still forming in her head as she gathered her ingredients. Rice, horse mackerel, miso, soy sauce, they all took their place on the counter one by one. For an extra twist she decided on late, she instructed the attendants to bring her flour, butter, milk powder, granulated sugar, and a wood-fired clay pot to cook the rice in. It was all coming together slowly, but perfectly. She could make this in her sleep normally, but today she would go the extra step. By the end of the match, Erna- maybe the whole Nakiri family- would understand.

She though this, assuredly, until she hit a mental snag. She and Yukihira reached for the same egg. Wound tighter than she realized, Megumi recoiled from Yukihira's skin like she had brushed a flame.

Yukihira, unbothered, snatched up the egg. Or, now that Megumi was right here, forced to look him in the eye, maybe he was bothered. He echoed more Saiba than Yukihira, standing too tall and too proud and just a little too tense. That egg stayed clenched in a tight grip, rather than being spun or flipped like he would normally. "Geeze, Tadokoro, calm down. It's just an egg."

"Yes. Right." She bowed. She held her hands stiff in front of her. "Excuse me, Yukihira-san."

"And cut that Yukihira crap!" His voice teetered just on the edge of shouting. "I told you to call me Souma! The day we _met_ I told you to call me Souma! What _gives_?!"

"If you will pardon me, Yukihira-san," said Megumi, "I still need the eggs."

She could see anger traveling over Yukihira in subtle twitches, as if he was struggling to do everything _but_ clench his fist, because it was holding the egg. "This is about the other day, right? You're still made that I didn't get all involved in Nakiri-san's family drama while you did! I told you, all that crap doesn't matter! All that matters is cooking!"

Mana spoke from behind the screen, making Megumi jump. "This boy speaks the truth. You hide behind a banner of lofty goals and equality to make up for your lack of talent. Your presence here serves no purpose but to waste food. Tootsuki Academy- nay, the world has no use for the likes of you."

This, Megumi was used to.

Yukihira's eyes darted back and forth between the screen and Megumi's face. At the least, he looked just the slightest bit alarmed, but he said nothing. Erina looked more surprised than him, giving Megumi the most helpless silent apology she possibly could… and saying nothing.

Megumi nodded and reached for another egg. "If this is the conclusion you've reached after your time in Tootsuki, then so be it, Yukihira-san."

Megumi turned on her heel and made her way back to her cooking station. Her ingredients had been laid out- well, nearly stacked from the small space at her disposal. The attendants bowed in another quiet apology and moved back into the wings, to wait for more orders. She set to work, focused and efficient. Measure the water and rice, then start the fire. While it was warm, proof the yeast and place it next to the clay stove so it could be warm. Next, prepare the mackerel fillets.

Meanwhile, Yukihira stormed back to his pots and pans.

"Fine then!" said Yukihira. "If that's the way you want it to be? Then you'll get a serving too, so you can understand!"

Megumi wondered, then, if this was how everyone felt. Ikumi, Alice, Hayama… That they weren't worth words. That everything could be "solved" by his so-delicious food and nothing else mattered. Not feelings, or history, or taking a bigger look at what was going on around him. That he could break the fight out of her with- she checked- rice and a tempura egg.

Her words began to fall together.

"I humbly refuse your offer."

Her knife slammed down on her mackerel, and its head fell across the counter and onto the floor.

Yukihira and Erina froze as she sliced the cuts away from the bones. "My name is Tadokoro Megumi, and I was raised in the Shokeien Ryokan in Tohoku. My father died in a fishing accident when I was young, and my mother taught me how to cook!

"But I am not only a cook! I play table tennis and garden! I read manga about love stories and manga about rookie sports heroes! I go to sleep at night and dream about being a good wife and a mother-"

Mana snapped. "What is your point?!"

"My point is that I have no point!" The fillets were ready, and she popped them onto the grill and shut the drawer tight. She added bread flour to her yeast mixture and began to stir. "I am a human being, not a business asset! My worth is not determined by whether or not I'm beneficial to your family! Neither is Yukihira, neither is Saiba Asahi, neither is anyone else, and neither is your daughter!"

Metal rang against brushed steel as Erina dropped her knife.

"Spoken like a true failure," said Mana. She gave a little laugh. "You can't plead that humanitarian angle with me. Everyone is 'a human being'. The world is drowning in 'human beings' and their little dreams and hobbies that they think make them special. To say that you demand equal treatment to the truly gifted because you read books and plant flowers is a fallacy. You and everyone on your level exist only to serve the likes of-"

The air rang again as Yukihira slammed down a metal bowl. It shocked Mana out of her speech, and it let Megumi put her bread dough in the microwave to quick-rise while she whipped up her cookie dough. The pieces were coming together.

Mana snarled. "You interrupted me-"

"For Christ's sake, woman," Yukihira snapped back, "_Read a book_. What is it with you and hating hobbies?" Soy sauce and ground yuzu skins went into the bowl, and he whipped them quick and loud in an attempt to drown out her voice.

"And who are you to talk?" Mana answered. "One doesn't acquire the skills you have without dedicating your life solely to cooking. It's people like you who are worth of attention to the WGO, not that little housewife in the braids."

"You know," said Yukihira, "I'm starting to think maybe you just don't like mothers."

Her dough had risen. Megumi took it out and kneaded in butter as quickly as she could by hand. The wet smack of the dough in the bowl, against Yukihira's whisk, made cacophony in that tiny room. The cookie dough had barely gotten enough time to chill, but not she was flattening it into small disks and wrapping it around dough balls to rise in the microwave on its oven setting. Washing off her hands, she didn't have much left to do. The fish went onto a plate, the miso soup into a bowl, and another egg placed near the heat of the wood fire. The rice was almost done, and the bread only needed to bake.

"Order up!"

Megumi set the bread onto bake. If Yukihira was finished, then she didn't have much time.

Yukihira set down the first bowl. "Thank you for waiting."

"What…" Mana leaned forward. "… kind of dish is that?"

"It's a ten-don, with egg as the star." Yukihira hissed. "I was going to make enough for three, but… Nakiri-san, this is for you to taste."

Erina gasped, "Yukihira-kun..."

"This will be different from the ten-don I served you before." He presented the bowl to her Yukihira's dish was beautiful, almost like serving a bowl of gold. Steam wafted from the rice. "I wasn't able to make you say 'delicious' back then..."

The mental image of Daigo pulling off his shirt filled Megumi's vision, and she suppressed a giggle. It was too late; Erina and Yukihira were already shooting her a look. She had to cover her mouth to keep the giggles out. "Sorry."

"Right. Whatever." Souma passed it over. "I call this Eggs Benedict-don, fit for a queen."

Her giggles died at the stab to her heart. Erina took the first bite and immediately went weak in the knees. She couldn't waste a moment, though- the rice finished as they were speaking, and Megumi began to serve it up. It was overcooked along the edges, so she scooped only from the middle.

"You remember the eggs benedict? I replaced the muffin with a set style rice bowl. I improved everything, in my own way. The poached egg, the bacon… and the hollandaise."

Erina took in another bite. "B-but… how did you-?"

"Back then, I managed to pass in terms of numbers, but I completely lost to you, didn't I?"

Oh, Megumi thought, the breakfast buffet challenge. The rice was served, with the warmed egg nestled on the top. She checked the oven: the bread was rising too much, making deep cracks in the top. It was all well enough; she'd forgotten to make the creases or dip them in sugar anyhow.

"That's why, ever since then, I was experimenting on your dish. What made your dish more amazing than mine… and how I could use it with my own cooking! Because one day, no matter what, I'm going to get you to say my cooking is 'delicious'!"

Yukihira was grinning. She could tell, even if she wasn't looking. "That's all you want to hear from your mother, isn't it?"

Megumi's heart ached again. All this time, all Erina wanted was a mother's love.

Something trembled through the floor. Megumi covered her ears, then her chest, then her ears, not expecting what would happen first. Here it came…

With a burst of energy and light…

_The wall exploded._

She was expecting her clothes to be gone… she was expecting her clothes to be gone, at least, although it never seemed to happen to Yukihira. The entire wall crumbling into plaster and rebar, falling to the grounds below and leaving electrical wires in its wake, she could not have predicted. It left her sprawled on the floor, head against the cabinet door, heart pounding and lungs struggling for air.

Erina put down her empty bowl. "It's…_** disgusting!"**_

__Megumi couldn't breathe.

"_It's disgusting_!" Erina raged, with a manic energy in her eyes that Megumi felt guilty for. "Everything you make is _disgusting_! You only took my work and changed it and called it yours!_ I_ am the one with the God Tongue! _I_ am the _only_ one who can make a dish to satisfy Mother! _Me_! _**Only**_ me! **_Do you understand that, Yukihira_**?!

Yukihira only chuckled. "That's the way it's gotta be!"

Perhaps, Megumi mourned in her heart, Yukihira and Nakiri Erina would be happy together after all. All she knew was that she could see her own future without Tootsuki, or either of them, and it felt cavernous and cold. Nakiri had instantly reverted back to her old self, the one Yukihira seemed to admire… the cold, dismissive Nakiri who failed students and shut down clubs. Who couldn't spare a single compliment. Not their friend.

Not her friend, anymore.

"Now prepare yourself!" Erina took to her spoons. "The greatest dish prepared by the God Tongue herself-"

Megumi checked out the wall. There was a clear view to the stands, where the battle was being broadcast.

Everyone was gone.

She took her finished dish and presented it before Nakiri.

"-will… Tadokoro."

"You?!" Mana threw her screen open. "You still think you have a chance after that display? And with _breakfast_?!"

"Breakfast," said Megumi, "Along with homemade melonpan."

It caught Nakiri's full attention, at least, and Yukihira's too. They put down their tools, and Yukihira undid his headband, to give it a good solid look. Fish, rice with an egg, miso soup, and soy sauce, with a small ugly melonpan as a side. Megumi bowed with pride. "Wood-fired rice with shiromiso soup, broiled mackerel, and a warmed egg for tamagokaki gohan."

"It's ordinary," said Mana. "You're disqualified."

"No, Nakiri Mana-san." Megumi slowly undid her cooking jacket. She only wore a shirt underneath- in her rush to be dressed this morning she put on her middle school club shirt- and the night air gave her goosebumps. "I submit that it is food never before seen by the Nakiri family: food cooked with love and without expectations."

Nakiri almost recoiled from the tray. "Without what?"

Megumi took a deep breath. "I cannot imagine the burden of being in the Nakiri family. To shoulder the burden of such a legacy from such a young age would break a weaker man. But at the same time, I can't help but feel like, little by little, it has broken you already."

"Broken me?!" Erina slammed the table. "What are you talking about?! I'm stronger than ever!"

"Because you can cook?" Megumi asked. "Because you aren't sad anymore? Or because you can judge? Criticize? Find every possible fault and make it known to the entire world how it fails to fit your standards?"

Nakiri struggled, and Megumi filled the half-second gap that it made.

"The Nakiri way is to constantly find what is wrong and remove it," said Megumi. "Tastes. Seasons. Techniques. Dishes. People. The Nakiri way ignores and rejects anything that is not absolute perfection. Only perfection, by their definition, deserves to exist.

"But this world itself is imperfect, and without an appreciation for the imperfect, then you reject everything, the way you rejected Yukihira's efforts to make you happy, and the same way your mother rejected you."

Erina did recoil this time, gasping and going pale, and finally staggering against the back wall. Mana lurched forward, mouth open, ready to speak… and saying nothing. She guessed there was nothing she could find to say. Speaking in defense of something else didn't seem to be part of the Nakiri training.

"Nakiri-san," said Megumi. "You eat without gratitude or appreciation… you eat without the spirit of _itadakimasu_. And if you cannot find it in your heart to appreciate all that you have been given, both in wealth and in friends and in food… then there is nothing I can do to change your mind. Indeed, your opinions on me have been made clear through your mother, and your quiet acceptance of it."

"Hey- wait!" Yukihira protested. "We never said it was right!"

"You didn't say it was wrong, did you? Because it wasn't worth it to fight it, because that's just the way things are."

Megumi was crying. She only noticed when the tears hit her chest. Now Yukihira was going pale.

"Wait- wait I didn't-"

"Tadokoro-san-" Erina tried to stand.

"I humbly give my resignation from Tootsuki Academy." Megumi bowed one last time. "The opportunities you've given me have changed my life… but for my own sake, then I must end my association with the school and the Nakiri family. I wish you and Yukihira-san the best… Goodbye."

She turned.

She left.

She walked out the door and down the hall to the elevator, flanked on either side by the camera men and attendants from the cooking room.

She hit the button for the ground floor and stared at the door. The elevator music was a song that was popular when she was a baby.

"I apologize for the trouble I've caused," Megumi said to the men. "But I promise I won't make any more."

"What?" The camera man scratched at his head. "Oh! Oh we're not your escorts or anything. We quit."

"You-"

The world dropped back into sharp focus like meat hitting hot oil. Her skin felt about like meat hitting hot oil, actually, as she looked up at the assembled men in suits. "You what?!"

"You didn't get the messages?" He held up his phone, along with all the other suited people in the elevator. "We stood up with you back when you said 'anybody who stands up with me leaves the school if I lose'!"

"Not that you lost!" said Anne.

Wait, Anne?! Megumi hadn't noticed her in the other corner of the elevator. "Anne-san?! What are you doing here?!"

"I stood with you, too!" said Anne. "But only after seeing Mana-sama's behavior during the cooking competition. It was horribly uncalled for… When you left, I left too."

"Hey, does that mean she doesn't know what's downstairs?" asked an attendant. "If she hasn't been checking her messages?"

Megumi scrambled for her phone, only to have another man take it and playfully hold it out of her reach, giggling like a child a quarter of his age.

"Oh, kid!" said a camera man. "Oh KID! Hey, anybody got a tissue? Let's get her cheeks dry at least."

The elevator opened to music, but muted music, coming from outside. Even the light coming in through the curtains in the windows seemed too bright. A hand came down on each of Megumi's shoulders, then more hands as Anne gave her a handkerchief for her eyes and nose.

"Come on, Tadokaro Megumi-" said the guy.

"Tadokoro!" corrected another. He gave her back her phone. "No peeking now."

"Sorry! Tadokoro Megumi-san." They lead her outside. "Let's get you cheered up."


	10. Chapter 10

Life was full of small injustices. Imperfections, setbacks, failures, and letdowns were all things Megumi was used to, and today, she had learned to appreciate them more than ever before.

All the little injustices, when found against and finally conquered, made amazing things happen.

That amazing thing tonight was the biggest festival she had ever seen: the festival of the fall of Tootsuki.

Bonfires had been staked all across the campus, and from every corner of every building in every field, Tootsuki smelled of food. Not only rich foods, fragrant foods, and delicous foods, but burnt foods, overly sweet foods, even outright stinky foods, all being roasted over piles and piles of test papers and school records. Students and teachers alike dared to go close to the big pyres just to toss in the latest batch of Tootsuki Academy paperwork and delight as it went up in ashes. Smaller fires were tucked away and saved for cooking. Students roasted marshmallows, little wieners, kiritanpo, anything they wanted over their dismissals and expulsions and shokugeki requests.

Megumi's breath caught in her throat as the anger sparked in her heart and wicked away into nothing. "Wow… Hisako wasn't kidding.."

That had been the plan, of course, but in a small way. "Make a fire, burn the papers of anyone who was leaving Tootsuki so their future schools couldn't be contacted." Hisako had promised it would be done, but not on this scale. Teachers had opened vending machines to distribute drinks. Clubs were operating out in the open to cook up the last of their food reserves. Middle schoolers, high schoolers, even the elementary school branch came together with every lick of staff…

Everyone was having fun and happy.

Megumi was tearing up again. She wasn't. She didn't feel like she could be. This was all her doing… she had brought Tootsuki down, put a huge gap in all of these people's academic lives… and for what? She just couldn't be happy, and she should… but she couldn't.

"Hey, there's Megumi!"

"OVER THERE LOOK HEY MEGUMI!"

"QUICK START THE SONG!"

She only managed to wipe the tears off of her face, not bothering to stop the new ones. A huge crowd was approaching, headed by the Polar Star Dorm, and singing… She figured it was supposed to be the Doraemon song but everyone in the crowd was utterly tone deaf and out of tune with each other, and only a few of them were singing the same words.

"Homework, school stuff, tests we take, and errands! Because of this and that and this and all of these other kinds of thiiings! Every-every-everything! She helps me with all of them! She helps me with a convenient kinda way!"

Yuki waved her old Megumi banner from the front of the line. "WOOO MEGUMI-CHIIII!"

They hit her like a wall, wrapping her with hugs and bouncing her in place. It was hot, and everyone was sweaty and smelled like burning paper, and laughing.

"Ah-ah-ah! I love you so very much, Tadokorooo Megumiiii!"

The spirit of itadakimasu overtook her, and she felt joy in her heart, and she laughed and sobbed into Yuki's chest.

"EMERGENCY!" Yuki shouted. "MEGUMI'S SAD!"

"I'm not!" Megumi quickly corrected. "I'm really not! Really! It's just been so much… I'm so glad all of you are okay..."

"Okay?!" Shoji cheered. "Dude, we haven't eaten better the entire time we've BEEN here!"

Daigo launched forward. "Shun's got a special food cooking just for you!"

Shun, oddly the only one with a fan, gently fanned away at his sweaty neck. "I had Arato bring me all of your report cards. I've used them to smoke a pork belly for you, and cooked it into an onigiri. It's waiting for you back at the smoker."

"Hey, don't leave out that I'm the one that supplied the pork belly!" Ikumi threw an arm over Megumi. "Good thing, too! Once my parents saw what went down in that room with you and Mana, they pulled out every bit of support from the whole school! I was lucky to get away with the meat cuts I could back at Bowl Club!"

"And then after your 'No More Bad Grades' onigiri, Ryou's demanded your presence!" said Alice. She grabbed at Megumi's arm. "He says he's making sure you don't leave the grounds before you try his special kani miso!"

Megumi giggled. "Grilled on my old test papers?"

Alice pretended to gasp. "How'd you know?"

"Megumi- Tado- Megumi-chan!" Hisako worked through the crowd. "Come on, you have to join in before everything wraps up! I've called your mother, and she's coming to pick you up tomorrow!"

"Tomorrow?!" Megumi looked down at her phone. It was past midnight. "Tomorrow-tomorrow or later today tomorrow?"

"The next day tomorrow!" Hisako waved the crowd along with her. "Come on, don't crowd her, she has a lot of food she needs to eat! Let's get her somewhere quiet!"

In a festival, there was no such thing as a quiet place. Megumi was swarmed wherever she was spotted by well-meaning students and overeager teachers. Lit up like daytime, the campus never rested with all of the rushing students eating everything they could, and even the security guards only kept lines orderly. It seems like they had also walked out, as all of their Tootsuki name badges could be found scattered on the ground around trash bins.

The onigiri was delicious, too. Applewood smoked pork belly and justice made for a filling meal, especially after Ryoko quick-fried it in soy sauce and sugar and served it up fresh. Mouth still stuffed with her treat, Megumi made a quick call to her mother.

Mother greeted her not with a hello, but with an outright bawl. "Oh Megumi, my dear little thing, I saw it all! Oh, hospitality be damned, when I heard that foul woman talkin' to you that way I just wanted to rip her head off by her dumb little eyebrows!"

"Mama- what do you mean, when you saw?" asked Megumi. "How did you see that?"

"Your little friend Hisako-chan called and walked me through how to set up the livestream on the Youtube in the front office!"

"It was livestreamed?!"

"We saw every minute of it!" said Mother. "You were so brave and strong! Megumi, I'm so blessed that you're my daughter! I want you to know, I love you so very very much, with every bit of my heart!"

Megumi's tears poured off her face and onto her onigiri before Ryoko swooped in to wipe them off. "Oh _Mama_!"

"My baby!" Mother cried from the other end. "I just wanna hold you right now! I can't- I need a minute! Take the phone-"

"Megumi?!" The new voice on the phone was her mentor, from the fishermen. "Megumi the only reason we ain't there RIGHT NOW bringin' you home is that all the folks in the ryokan are hustlin' and bustlin' canceling their Tootsuki vacations and givin' your Mama a ton o' business!"

"Oh sir, that's amazing!" Megumi whimpered. "Don't worry about me- come get me whenever it's all sorted out!"

"Nothin' to it!" he answered. "We're takin' up a collection, and then your mama's gettin' on the next plane she can and gettin' you right from your dormitory! Tomorrow, eleven a.m., sharp!"

She giggled. "Tomorrow tomorrow, or later today tomorrow?"

"Megumi you gettin' smart with me?!" His voice pulled away from the phone. "I tell her tomorrow, and she tells me 'tomorrow tomorrow or later today tomorrow'?!"

The entire room on the other side of the phone laughed, and Megumi tittered with joy. It must have been the entire staff, up late and gathered around the only computer with internet in the whole ryokan… Megumi never felt more homesick. "I'm so happy I'm gonna see y'all again. When I come home, I want Mama's home cookin'!"

"We even got her talkin' right again!" said her mentor.

Megumi's mother took the phone back. "I want you to get all your little friend's numbers and names, all right, Megumi? They get free stays for as long as they keep comin'. But I'm puttin' 'em up in your room, y'here?"

Megumi laughed. "I wouldn't have it no other way, Mama!"

Of course, once she hung up, everyone laughed.

"Y'here?!" laughed Ikumi.

"Y'ALL!" Yuki squealed through a laugh.

Megumi only laughed back. "Y'all best behave now!"

Ryou's station in front of the Molecular Gastronomy Research Society indeed had him cooking with every ounce of seafood they had left in storage. Sadatsuka Nao was a bit of a surprise, though, although once Megumi found her scooping the kani miso directly out of the crab and eating it raw, she understood better.

"MEGUMI!" roared Ryou. "You have been given the PRIVILEGE of eating my specially prepared kani miso! SAVOR IT! Unlike this heathen that eats it RAW!"

Nao cackled over her still-wriggling crab. "But the taste of the still-living crab is when it's at its best!"

"WHAT ARE YOU, A WILD ANIMAL OR A CHEF?! COOK YOUR FOOD, GODDAMNIT!"

Alice took a seat at the grill. "Megumi sits next to me! I demand it!"

"Am… I Megumi to everyone now?" Megumi took her spot with a delicate air.

"After today?" Ryoko admitted. "I can't think of you as anything but a dear friend."

"You already were, though!"

Hisako blushed. "Well, from my perspective… yes. It's hard to go through something like this and not..."

Megumi's heart sunk. "You'll have a lot more to deal with than me. Will you miss Nakiri-san, Hisako?"

Hisasko nodded. "My parents actually aren't entirely decided on this whole thing. My father wants to stay employed to the Nakiri family, while my mother doesn't, but she also doesn't know what we'd do once we're not… Either way, I'm using my own money to apply to a normal high school, and I'm going to live in an apartment near campus until it's all sorted out."

Megumi nodded. "You're very fortunate."

"I am..." Hisako rocked in her seat. "It's weird to think that I'm this fortunate because of Erina-sam- … Nakiri-san, and yet I've done this much to ruin my family's partnership with them..."

"I don't think you did," said Megumi. "You made your own decisions and did what you thought was right. I'm not entirely happy about it all, myself… but I think..."

"Everyone's lives will improve from here," said Hisako. "Yes. It's not like they could get any worse."

"Mopey whining babies," Ryou growled from his side of the grill. "Complaining about your feelings when there's crab guts to be eaten."

"I heard these are tasty if you pour sake in the shell," said Alice. "Did you put the sake in it?"

"No, I substituted with Ramune because I'm a minor. OF COURSE I PUT SAKE IN IT, WHAT DO YOU TAKE ME FOR?!"

Kani miso was incredibly strong, bitter, and so strongly seafood-y that it lingered on her palette even after sampling some of Isshiki's special end-of-school sukiyaki. Everybody was starting to either be full or be incredibly sleepy by that point, mindlessly eating in silence while she collected phone numbers and talked with Isshiki.

"Oh, my parents and I have never been entirely close," Isshiki explained. "I can relate with Nakiri-san on a few points. All very critical, never complimenting or encouraging me, very rooted in tradition. That's why I worked so hard to make my own money."

"Are you going independent after all of this?" asked Megumi.

"Actually, I plan on going back into school," he said. "I've been scouted by an agricultural school in Hokkaido that's interested in me for their Culinary Arts program. I think I'm going to dual-major in Culinary and Agricultural Sciences."

"Hey, wait!" said Zenji. "You don't mean Ooezo Agg, do you? They scouted me too!"

"Oh, Zenji, you should go!" Isshiki bounced, and boy did he bounce in his joy. "You and me could stay senpai and kohai, and tell stories of our tribulations at Tootsuki Academy! People would have to believe us because we'd back each other up!"

"Do you plan on going back to school, Megumi?" Ryoko asked.

"I… haven't thought about it." Megumi took another long, slow bite of beef. "Maybe. I'll give it more thought after I've slept."

"I'd love to keep you with me, Megumi," said Isshiki. "I'd mother-hen you all the way up to my graduation day! Every one of you!"

Yuki blanched. "I pity whoever winds up your kids. You'd be the sappiest, most over-huggy dad in the history of Japan."

"And Japan-" he posed dramatically. "Would be better for it!"

"Hey!" Mitsuru jumped out from the crowd. "Hojo Miyoko and Kinokuni Nene are having an ice cream battle! Hojo grabbed Chinese rice wine and Kinokuni's got soba water!"

"This can only end in utter disaster," said Shun. "We must record every second of it."

"THE ICE CREAM MACHINE IS OOOOON!" Daigo roared. "TO the oooh I'm so full I'm gonna pop..."

The night was fairly wonderful. They stayed awake for hours, going from stall to stall and hall to hall, getting phone numbers and reconnecting with teachers. Megumi was going bleary-eyed by the end of it, but the day was wonderfully satisfying.

She caught a glimpse of Senzaemon, out in the ground, looking out over his school in something like horror. He'd never been so disheveled in all the time Megumi had known him… Where had he been, while Erina was battling for her mother's sake?

Oh well. Megumi took a long drink of amazake, and by the time she looked again, he was gone. She would sleep well tonight, she thought. She had to, through all the food she had eaten. She was about to request a ride back to the dorm just so everyone could use the bathrooms in peace.

It was all over.

On her side, it was all over.


	11. Chapter 11

Back in the private kitchen, Tadokoro had just left, and Souma was still standing in a pool of shock, surrounded by bits of wall, and staring at the door. Nakiri beside him, just as silent and stiff, didn't give him any hints. Erina's mother just hung back where she was left.

Something had happened, he was sure of it. He just wasn't sure what.

"Um..." The only person he could think to ask was Nakiri. "Do you have any idea what that was about?"

At least now Nakiri was reinvigorated by his food, because she could properly shout and talk again. Her skin flushed red as she screamed. "You idiot! Tadokoro just dropped out because of my mother!"

Mana stormed into their space. "Don't you blame me for that filthy child's misbehavior-"

"She is not filthy or a child!" said Erina. "Tadokoro was a dear friend that you callously drove off because of your cold, barren heart!"

Mana whipped her fan open and covered her mouth. "Bold of you to say so now that she's left you."

"You would know best about leaving me, Mother!"

Mana went crimson to match and nearly threw down her fan. "How dare you-!"

Souma was just about to try and excuse himself when the door slammed open. Just the volume of it made his shoulders twitch. Striding into the room, looking more intense than Souma had ever seen him, Senzaemon was quick to separate his family.

"Both of you, enough!" he commanded. "Erina, quickly: finish your dish!"

It did get Erina to stop shouting at her mother, but only because she whipped right around and started on her grandfather instead. "Are you serious?! No! I refuse!"

"This is how your grandfather has always been!" Mana shot in. "Nothing matters but his school and his stupid shokugekis!"

"Everything I have done-" Senzaemon protested, "-has been for our benefit!"

"Like leaving me with Father so he could torture me into liking his cooking?!" Erina shouted. "Was that for my benefit?!"

"He did what?!" Now Mana turned on Senzaemon. "What did Azami do to her?! What haven't you told me?!"

A snarl bared Senzaemon's fangs. "I cannot tell someone who isn't there."

Now Erina could turn back onto Mana. "Don't play like you care now! You tried to force me to marry a man who kidnapped me!"

"Don't speak to your mother so rudely!" warned Senzaemon.

"I don't have a mother!" Erina wailed so high her voice cracked, and kept going. "This stranger isn't my mother! My real mother wouldn't have abandoned me as a baby and left me with you!"

"You've seen what he's like!" Mana tried to defend herself. "I couldn't spend another second with him! It was agony!"

Erina was quick. "So you hate him more than you love me?"

Senzaemon nearly glowed with the blood raging in his veins. "I did no different than a hundred generations of Nakiri before me! I have done nothing wrong!"

"Nothing wrong?!" Erina screeched. "Your stupid policies cost me all my friends!"

"Your friends were useless!"

He had felt time slow down over and over again in the past. It was how he usually felt whenever he found his flow, or whenever his rivals pulled off something really amazing.

Erina snapped her arm back, grabbing an empty sauce pan by the handle. She spun it to adjust her grip and turn the bottom forward, reducing drag. Her eyes, wild with fury and overflowing with tears, tracked up to Senzaemon's face. She calculated. He was too tall to reach. Her entire body pivoted just as Mana realized what was happening and reached out to stop her.

Life popped back into full speed when the pot left Erina's hand and slammed full force into the side of Senzaemon's face.

Souma's body moved him out of the way of the bouncing pot while his mind was still catching up with everything. Senzaemon was all three-and-a-half meters of badass that one pot wouldn't down him, but he dropped at the shock of it being thrown by his granddaughter. Erina ran from the room bawling, crying for Hisako. Mana staggered on her feet just long enough to make herself dizzy and stumble, landing on her father. His dad just-

"Dad?!" Souma shouted. "When did you get here?!"

Joichiro barely withheld a laugh. "I came with Senzaemon! Didn't notice me, did you? MAN, was that a train wreck or what?"

Senzaemon called out from the floor. "Yukihira! Go after her!"

"Hey," said Joichiro, "I think I'm tired of you bossing my kid around."

Noises scrambled from behind the door before it finally shoved open. Takumi dashed in from the hallway, dressed haphazardly in his civilian clothes and holding his phone. "Souma! Souma you have to see- ah!" He immediately snapped about five pictures of the Nakiri family on the ground. "What happened?!"

"Y-you! Boy!" Senzaemon ordered. "Quickly! Find Erina!"

Joichiro ignored Senzaemon and answered Takumi. "Nakiri pegged her granddad with the back of a sauce pan!"

"And I missed it?! Wait- I was saying something! Souma!"

Right, he existed. Souma shook his thoughts out of his head. "Takumi!"

"Anne!" Mana gasped. "Anne! Help me up! Anne?"

Joichiro remarked, "Look at you two! I don't remember him being on a first-name basis with you!"

"I told you it was bigger than you were treating it!" Takumi flipped through his phone. Picture after picture, it showed students and bonfires in front of school buildings. "The whole academy went into open revolt once Nakiri's mom started trashing Tadokoro! They're setting their permanent records on fire and getting picked up by their parents!"

"They're what?!" Senzaemon roared. He started to stand, pulling Mana up along with him. "We need to-"

"Don't TOUCH me!" Mana tried to shake herself free, but only weakly writhed in his grip.

Joichiro guffawed. "I've had dreams like this back when I dropped out! This is amazing, isn't it, Souma?"

Senzaemon struggled to move. Maybe everything happening all at once flustered him, literally knocked him off kilter. Maybe it was his age showing. Souma, mentally, could kind of relate to all of it today. The old man growled. "Saiba Joichiro!"

"Yukihira Joichiro, actually," he corrected. "Again. Come on, son, let's go look at the wreckage. You coming with us, Aldini-kun?"

"I-I- maybe?" Takumi turned to him. "Souma? Are you okay?"

He… didn't really know. This was so much stuff. He thought it all end with this and everything would be over.

Takumi had tried to warn him days ago.


	12. Chapter 12

He had just shut the door on Nakiri Erina and retreated to the hall. He could feel the fire of competition burning in his blood. Asahi had nearly every advantage over him: age, experience, tools, and even his supposed superpower of Cross Knives. It got him excited. It revved him up almost the way Nakiri did, setting that goal so high and then claiming no one could possibly reach it. It made it that much sweeter whenever he sunk his knife down right in the center of that target. It would be his cooking, not some weird power or money, that won over Nakiri and got her to say what he'd been wanting to hear: that his food was delicious.

He couldn't wait to get started! He couldn't test dishes specifically without knowing the theme, but he could hone his techniques and timing! He was all ready to spend a whole night cooking for Tadokoro!

When he turned around, she was apologizing and running away.

All this, recounted to Takumi Aldini in a flurry of disjointed texts. He'd been the first person to answer his texts at all, assuming everyone else he tried contacting was either asleep or working with their phones on silent. Takumi had come over as fast as he could. Souma had started explaining, in bits and pieces and some of it out of order, about everything. He'd kept Takumi chatting, even while the fellow chef had stayed firmly attached to his own phone, and had even started a mirepoix to make him something nice to eat.

But then the doors flew open, and Megumi dashed past the kitchen without even looking along with Ryoko and Yuki (who he had tried to text, damn it!), and Souma felt something squeeze his lungs. He huffed and tossed his mirepoix about in his pot. "And look! There she goes now!"

Takumi didn't look up. "Who?"

"Tadokoro! Are you even listening?"

"I am! I just have to make sure Isami's okay." Takumi sent his text and looked up. "He's been really nervous since the BLUE match. What were you saying?"

"You weren't listening! I was asking your advice!" He dished out his mirepoix and stared at it. "How am I supposed to cope with two girls in my life acting weird?"

Takumi sighed and went right back to texting. "It's never been more obvious that you live with your single dad."

Egg soboro. That's what he would make, because eggs and vegetables were tasty. He grabbed some nearby eggs and cracked them into the hot pan and started stirring. "And what's that supposed to mean?!"

"It means girls have thoughts, dumbass! And that maybe their emotions are responses to those thoughts? Duh?"

"Like how?"

Takumi kept texting. "Like how maybe Tadokoro was upset that you called one of her friends dumb?"

"I didn't say she was dumb!" Dishing out the finished egg soboro, Souma added another batch of eggs and mixed like the wind. "I said she was worried about dumb things!"

"And there's my point made." Takumi mad a small noise. "Hey, Isami said that you should probably just apologize."

"Apologize for wha- are you texting him what I've been telling you?!"

"I told you I was listening."

The doors flew open and slammed against the walls behind them. Peeking through the kitchen doorway, Souma only caught a quick glimpse of the girls bolting up the stairs.

"Guys! Where are you going? Tadokoro!" said Souma.

He could see her back through the door. She'd changed clothes so quickly- he didn't think that was a thing girls could even do- and she just… stopped, in the lobby, and ran out the door without so much as looking at him. Like he didn't even matter.

His eggs had burned. He shoveled the nasty scalded eggs into the trash and cracked in a new pair. "Stupid- this is all stupid! Stupid girls not acting right-"

Takumi took a picture and started texting. "Okay, let's unpack a couple of things. First off: what are you so angry about?"

"What- why?"

"What do you mean, why?" Takumi texted. "That's what I'm asking you! Why are you so mad about Tadokoro?"

"Because- because that isn't what she's supposed to do!" Souma stirred like crazy. "Telling me that my cooking won't be enough to fix this and then running away… like I've never done this before! She should have faith in me, and now she's running away without talking to me!"

"And again," said Takumi, "This is after you told Nakiri that she was dumb."

"That she was worrying about dumb things!" He dished out his pan and cracked another pair of eggs. "That's totally different!"

"Jeeze, when you're not talking about food then you're crazy obtuse..." Takumi shot him a look. "Why are you making so much soboro?"

Souma shouted back, "Because it's the angriest food I can make, damn it!"

"Then why not just tell Tadokoro that she's making you angry?"

"OH sure!" Souma argued, "Let me go tell her that I'm pissed that she's ignoring me _while she's ignoring me_!"

Souma reached for another handful of eggs, and Takumi leaped across the room to catch his wrist before he could crack them. "Stop making soboro! For crying out loud- make a meringue or something!"

The squeeze against his legs ebbed as the advice sunk in. "Oh, perfect!" Souma dished out the soboro. He hadn't even remembered to take the cooked eggs out before he was about to add the new ones in. Maybe he was a little angrier than normal about this… Hayama had worked him up during that whole bear debacle but he couldn't remember being this… frantic about it. He passed the soboro bowl to Takumi. "Here, finish this up, will you? Or pack it up and take it home to Isami, whatever."

"Wait, you want me to eat it now?!" Takumi let him go just to properly gawp. "Just this big heaping pile of egg soboro and hot celery?"

The protest caught Souma off guard, and he spluttered with the hot pan still in his hand. "I don't know! Yes! Kinda?" Whatever, he went to put the pan away in the sink and rinsed it off even while it hissed and spit steam at him. "Tadokoro usually eats it all! Woman has an appetite like an athlete!"

Takumi rubbed at his temples. "Souma, come back to my dorm with me."

He froze in his tracks. "Uh… is this a confession kind of thing?"

"No, you dumbass, it's just an invitation to sleep over," Takumi explained. "You're tired, you're stressed, you're thinking too fast and in no order, and I'm not the one to talk about this kind of stuff with. Isami is, and he won't leave the dorm room."

"He won't?" asked Souma. That was news to him. "At all?"

"Not since he was kidnapped. And his appetite isn't coming back, either..." Takumi took a long breath. "Look, come back. Stay in our dorm overnight. When you wake up, you can cook for Isami and try to tell us what's bothering you in… better order, okay?"

Souma looked down at the sink, full of mirepoix bits and overcooked egg and soapy water and his own, shivering hands, and thought on it.

Except he couldn't think, because everything in his head sounded like a noisy mismatch of crashes and people shouting at him and the looks on Nakiri's and Tadokoro's faces, and the quiet of the afternoon when no one was talking to him except Takumi, and the faces of Asahi and the Cuisiniers Noir, and just everything about the week, all at the same time.

"Yeah..." Souma nodded. "Okay, let's do that."


	13. Chapter 13

The Aldinis lived in the upscale International Student Dormitory, which was basically a very nice danchi. They had a communal cooking space just like Polar Star, but each room also had a small kitchenette for private cooking. Yukihira had never been before, but he had to imagine that maybe this was what America felt like. When he came in last night with Takumi, people from every country speaking a multitude of languages chatted together and combined recipes to make strong-smelling foods even after midnight. He'd fallen asleep on the Aldini's dorm room couch in a borrowed set of pajamas to the smell of paella and ghee.

When he woke up, the dorm was silent as a tomb.

Had he overslept?

Souma bolted off of the couch and dove for his phone. He'd had nightmares like this! He overslept and missed the BLUE, and now Nakiri was marrying Asahi! He would have to sell the diner and become an office worker!

The phone screen gave a simple notice: "Classes suspended until further notice."

He had a lot of thoughts all at once. What was so important that they suspended class? Was it Nakiri's idea? If classes were canceled, why was an entire apartment complex of foreign students so deathly quiet? Polar Star would have been up and experimental cooking since dawn. Did he still oversleep? At least that question he could answer, because the clock said he hadn't.

This morning felt weird already.

Nobody had texted him back.

Takumi came in first from the bedroom area, followed by Isami. Takumi was already dressed well and groomed for the day. Isami had tucked himself into a big hoodie and automatically made his way to the couch for the blanket Souma had been sleeping under. He wrapped himself up in it and turned on the television. "Good morning, Yukihira."

"Hey, Isami." Guess he wouldn't be using that blanket anymore today. Souma cleared his throat. "How you doing?"

"Not great." Isami pulled the blanket around himself tighter. "A little weak. Not very hungry."

"You remember the agreement, Yukihira?" asked Takumi. "You were kind of out of it last night."

"No, I remember." Souma stood up and cracked his back. He could cook for Isami, easy! In fact, it'd be a great opportunity to practice the dish he would make for Nakiri! It perked him up, and the silence in the dorm faded away as he braced himself to cook. But first he had to change back into his clothes from yesterday, gross- No, he could weather it for Isami's sake. "All right! Time for the ultimate comfort food: tamagokake gohan!"

Takumi wailed, "AGAIN with the eggs!"

"ARE YOU A CHEF OR NOT?!" Souma shouted back, "IT'S NOT LIKE YOU HAVE TO EAT IT!"

Isami checked his phone. "Hey, Nii-chan, do you know a Mitsuru?"

Souma stopped mid-roar. "Oh hey, I do. That's the newspaper club kid."

"What about him?" asked Takumi. He crossed the room to hover over Isami's shoulder. "Huh..."

Time to cook, Souma supposed. He would fix Isami the latest edition of his tempura egg don. Putting some oil on to heat up, took up the other burner to boil a little water. With no time to freeze an egg, he'd fry it lightly poached instead. Takumi and Isami sat in total silence, reading Isami's phone, all the while. Their intensity was worrying.

"Hey, so…" Souma asked. "Do you usually shoulder surf your brother's texts like that?"

Isami answered. "Only since I got tied up and locked in a closet."

"Hey, let me get this straight..." said Takumi. "Nakiri got kidnapped too?!"

"Oh yeah, by that Asahi guy! This was before the what wait!" Souma stopped cold. "Who told you that?!"

"The Mitsuru kid!" said Takumi.

"Whatever you got up to with Erina," said Isami, "The whole school's talking about it. I had to turn the alerts off on my phone for all the notifications."

Now Souma had to, and did, spend the entire cooking time summarizing absolutely everything that had been happening with nakiri and Tadokoro and Nakiri's mom, and how the second round with Asahi was coming up, and how he couldn't even test cook with Tadokoro because she was always somewhere else ever since yesterday, and now she was ignoring him, and… just everything! Isami listened with rapt attention. Takumi, having heard most of it before but out of order, kept a tight watch on the phone.

In fact, when Souma finally plated and served his dish, Takumi didn't even look up. Isami, at least, nodded when he took the bowl. "Thank you, Yukihira."

"No problem!" At least now he could watch Isami's reaction to his cooking and put the whole mess out of his mind. Bringing it all up again had put a gross weight in his chest. "Eat up!"

Isami split the tempura egg and took a long breath. "That's a good eggy smell..."

"Says you," said Takumi. "I'm so sick of looking at eggs."

Souma smirked. "You didn't have one cooked like this."

"Sorry, Yukihira." Takumi shrugged. "I'm burned out. After all that egg soboro- which I ATE over half of it because you made too much to fit in the fridge- nothing you made would taste good right now."

It… it was like little strings of fishing wire crossing in a web over his heart and gently, steadily, squeezing it. He didn't know why. He didn't really like the feeling. It hurt, and it made his mouth taste bad.

Isami took two bitse, both times humming in contentment… then he put his chopsticks down. "Sorry, Nii-chan… I feel sick again."

That finally pulled Takumi away from his phone screen. "But you have to eat! What would Nonna Aldini think if she saw you wasting away like this?"

Souma talked through a lump in his throat. "You don't like it?"

"It's delicious," said Isami. "If I could eat it, I'd eat it down to the last grain of rice. But ever since the kidnapping, I've been nervous going outside… Kinda scared of people. I'm ashamed..."

Takumi held his shoulder. "Don't be, Isami! What happened to you would terrify anybody! It's nothing to be ashamed of!"

"Nii-chan probably invited you over to cook for me thinking it would help," Isami continued, "And I do really appreciate it. But right now, I'm so upset and hurt, everything I eat just tastes awful."

The fishing wire cut into his heart.

"Here," said Takumi, "I'll finish it for you."

"Don't worry about it, Takumi." Souma grabbed it from him. "I'll eat it. You can… look at your phones some more, or something."

"The whole school's talking about BLUE right now," said Takumi. "Be careful out there."

"And they're not talking about it in a good way," added Isami. "There's some bad stuff going around-"

"Eh, the school's never liked what I do. I'm not gonna start listening to them now." Souma took his first bite. Whatever Isami was going through must have been awful, because the food really was delicious. I guess it was getting kidnapped that soured it for him.

His stomach twitched angrily at that thought, so he pushed it aside. He needed his breakfast.

Takumi and Isami shared a look before Takumi spoke. "It's not really about you so much as-"

"Awesome!" cut in Souma. "Then it doesn't concern me."

Takumi shifted his weight to stand. "Yukihira, listen-"

Isami took his shoulder and pulled him back down. "Chill. If he's like you were telling me yesterday, then he wouldn't get it anyway."

Souma always felt a little miffed when people talked around him instead of to him. "Wazzat now?"

"Nothin'," said Isami. "Hey, where's Mitsuru now?"

"I don't know! Why-" Takumi checked the phone. "Oh. He's in the club room with th- the newspaper club."

"You know, Yukihira," said Isami with a playful lilt. "If you went back to the dorm now, there'd be nobody in the bathtub..."

"Oh damn!" he polished off his bowl fast. "A private bath and fresh clothes before BLUE! You're a genius, Isami!"

"I know, right?"

"Just- Yukihira please-" Takumi sighed. "Listen to the people around you, okay? Stuff's happening out there."

"Oh please." He set down his bowl. "Nothing's that big of a deal around here."


	14. Chapter 14

The dorm was empty and quiet when he got back.

The bath felt hollow, and not super comforting. Putting on his usual work shirt helped, but until BLUE began, he had no one to talk to. He sent a few texts, but no one answered other than Takumi and Isami. He wandered the halls while his hair dried fully, and nothing turned up. He did spot Isshiki gardening out the window, but he couldn't bring himself to go outside and bother him. The air was too tense. Something felt wrong.

He kept walking until he was in a part of the dorm he had never seen before. It wasn't anything particularly interesting, just a door he never had a reason to open. When he opened it, out of curiousity, he didn't find anything particularly interesting. It was a plain office. Papers, books, folders, a lamp: it was so stereotypical that he had flashbacks to middle school.

The fact that Fumio was inside was what made him pause. This must have been her office. He didn't even know she had an office. She didn't look like she was to be disturbed either. The way she hunched at her desk, blind to the world as she wrote furiously at her paperwork, phone melded to her ear, it was like someone had replaced his den mother with her polar opposite. His throat dried. Unable to speak, he caught her side of the conversation.

"… respectfully, sir, the high school division has never instituted a curfew. There would be no grounds to- … yes. I understand how that would upset you. … that has grounds for disciplinary action, but not expulsion."

Souma swallowed. Was this about him? Probably some BLUE plot to get him out of the tournament because they knew he could win.

"I see… yes. When I see any of them, they will be confined to their dormitories until the beginning of the next grading period. Thank you very much."

Fumio hung up the receiver like a judge's gavel, and kept right on writing.

"Yikes," said Souma, "What was that about?"

"Aaaah Yukihira," Fumio wriggled in surprise. "Don't sneak up on me like that. I'm deep in paperwork for the school. I just got a flood of messages from Doujima, and then Nakiri-san calls-"

"The grandpa one or the girl one?"

"Ah yes, you answer to the younger one now." Fumio finally turned to face him fully. She had bags under her eyes almost like bruises. "I have a lot of work to do today, Yukihira. More than I ever expected. You'll have to fend for yourself today, as much as I hate saying that."

"Hate saying that?"

"I know this BLUE competition has to be wearing you down, even if you're not showing it." How Fumio could keep up her train of thought and write at the same time, he would never know. "It was enough to cause your father to drop out, when he was here. You and him both have the air of invincibility that you pride yourselves on. It's during times like these that we need to rely on the people around us for strength. It's their love and support that help us come out of hard times stronger and wiser, not broken, and now I've been backed into a corner and can't provide that for you."

Souma swallowed hard. The lines of fishing wire came back with a vengeance and crushed his heart until it sliced into bleeding chunks in his chest. He pulled out his phone.

"Who are you calling?" asked Fumio.

"I'm messaging Tadokoro," he said. "To see if she wants to cook with me."

"Megumi-chan left early this morning, while you were out," said Fumio. "Leave her be."

His thumb hovered over Send. Fumio just gave him an order. It wasn't a harsh order, by any means, but it Fumio said to let someone be, then you did. It still sat poorly with him.

"You put so much on your shoulders, Yukihira..." mused Fumio. "Why don't you take a little time to yourself? Have a nice long bath and relax. Spend some time with that nice Takumi boy."

"Already did." He turned his phone off. "I'm going to practice some recipes. See you later, Fumio."

"You won't see me for a while yet." Fumio went back to writing. "Not for everything I have to do today..."

He had made it halfway to the kitchen before realizing Fumio hadn't tried to ground him. The call she had gotten must not have been about him.

Instead, he had the entire dormitory to himself. An entire kitchen and living room and every bedroom, completely alone. Not even customers to serve or his grandfather to bother. It was weirdly like home… but not at all like being home, either.

The pieces of his heart stayed in the bottom of his chest, in pieces and bleeding, all the way through Asahi's posturing and Mana's issuing of the challenge of the night.

And Tadokoro changed everything, with "My name is Tadokoro Megumi, and I am no failure!"


	15. Chapter 15

He attended the festival with his dad and Takumi. He knew he had. He didn't remember any of it, and feel asleep in his clothes without taking a bath.

Something about him was fuzzy when he woke up. It was probably that weird dream he had about Tadokoro leaving the school, but if that was the case, then why couldn't he remember who had won BLUE? He could remember the festival that happened afterwards, even though he was pretty sure a giant celebration festival wasn't part of the curriculum. Whatever happened, the fuzzy feeling was awful. He hadn't felt this bad since his mom had died-

It all came back to him in a rush. Souma lurched out of his bed. No one had won BLUE. Tadokoro had quit school out of protest. Nakiri hit her grandfather in the face with a pan.

He needed his dad. His dad was still here, right?

Jumping up and running into the hallway, not caring if he was in yesterday's clothes, Souma bolted to the kitchen and found nothing. It had been nearly emptied out of food- he guessed that was where the festival food had come from- and there wasn't a single sign of someone cooking. Everything was cold and quiet.

Knocking on the room doors turned up nothing. They opened easily, unlocked. All empty.

He remembered Fumio's office and ran there at a blind sprint.

It was utterly empty, except for a sealed letter of resignation atop Fumio's desk.

Souma walked back to his room in the company of the drone of the air conditioner. The electric hum of flourescent lights greeted him at the door. He checked his phone. Two messages waited for him: his dad was leaving for antoher job, and he put some money in his account for the trip home if he wanted to take it. Classes, said the school number, were back on in Lecture Hall B. They started at 2:00 p.m. It was 1:20 p.m.

The fuzzy feeling crept into his heart where the fishing wire had cut, like mold overtaking bread. Souma drove to the lecture hall in a daze. He still wasn't entirely awake when he entered the lecture hall. It took him much longer than it should have to notice that Takumi and Isami were in the seats as he passed, because they usually weren't. In fact, he didn't recognize any of the faces. He wondered if maybe he came into the wrong class; everybody in here was an international student.

It only got weirder when Nakiri came in and sat down next to him amongst the many empty seats. Souma spoke and nearly cringed at how hoarse his voice was to his own ears. "Nakiri-san? How… you doing?"

Nakiri didn't look at him, or acknowledge him with much more than a nod. Her eyes instead cast vacant glares at the desk in front of her, just above the book she had set down out of habit. He could faintly feel, through the fuzz, that he should say something to rile her up. She needed to laugh away that dullness, or scream at him, like normal. He couldn't. Everything he thought of in his usual menu of retorts pulled and crushed at his heart and tangled in his throat.

Good thing she spoke instead. "Your clothes reek of smoke."

He sniffed his sleeve. Yep, he smelled like fire. "I uh… fell asleep in mine last night."

Erina nodded. "I did too."

She still wouldn't look at him. Souma could only stare when the classroom door opened to Senzaemon. He took the place of the usual teacher at the front of the hall. Senzaemon had that look about him down to a science: the scowl, the crossed arms, the kimono undone just enough to show off the alpha male chest. The gravitas alone was enough to get the room to go quiet. Souma noted, though, that it wasn't silent. His new classmates turned from each other to their phones. Most watched with a distant, passive interest. He checked on the Aldini brothers from his high vantage point: they were both fidgeting, but otherwise quiet.

Finally, Senzaemon spoke. "A true chef lives a life of servitude.

"Before me, I see the future of Japanese cuisine. You have outlasted the rocks who have polished you all into diamonds. But through all of this, if you are to succeed, you must remember one thing above all else.

"A chef, more than anything, must kneel to the whims of others. Yours is a life served to your customers, your peers, and your superiors. To become successful in this wasteland, in this wilderness that strips the gifted and talented to the bone, you must never think of yourself. From now on, for the rest of your lives, your only concern _will be what I want from you_."

Somebody in the back shouted, "_Vaffanculo!_"

Takumi and Isami cracked up, and much of the class quickly followed. Souma shot Erina a look, which she returned in kind: looking kind of horrified and blushing.

Another voice, and this one had to be American from the accent, chimed in. "The only reason I'm still here is that my plane doesn't leave until Saturday!"

"Where my papers, Grandpa?" called out someone else with much rougher Japanese. "Check a fire, yes!"

Senzaemon's face blazed red. "I will not have this insubordination in my school!"

"School of Erina!"

"Yeah, didn't you lose the school last year because you got impeached?"

The student sitting behind Erina gave a swift kick to the back of her chair. "Yeah, Erina, tell him he's full of shit!"

"Careful!" said the girl next to him in a high, mocking nasal tone. "She might expel you!"

"Go ahead then, Nakiri!" he shot right back. "Expel me! Tell me my food's just as shitty as your parents!"

"That is enough-" Senzaemon bit back his words. Someone was knocking on the classroom door. It shook a few of the students into quieting down, but more pulled out their phones and started texting instead.

Senzaemon opened the door to the police.

"Nakiri-san, good morning. I'm Officer Kobayakawa, Tokyo Police Department. We have some questions to ask you regarding Hayama Akira-san and Kurokiba Ryou-san. Could you step outside with us, please?"

Multiple police officers? Waiting for him, to ask about students? The hall shuffled with more students reaching for their phones. Senzaemon did not answer immediately, and it was very obvious in the tense, attentive room. Souma saw a sea of phones switching to camera mode and snapping shots of Senzaemon from every stadium angle.

"I am in the middle of a lecture," said Senzaemon. "Please remain outside while I finish."

The young lady officer nodded. "I'm afraid we must insist on your time, Nakiri-san."

"You must arrange it through my secretary."

"Questions concerning Arata Hisako-san will come next-"

Souma blinked, and Senzaemon was out in the hallway, being wrestled to the ground by an entire squad of cops, bordered on every side by the students who had been up in the seats with them. The cheering and the scuffle- all the shouting and slamming and flashing from phone lights- hit Souma's ears like hammers and blurred his vision out. His brain wouldn't work with him. He could barely think. He had to leave.

He only just sort of noticed that Erina got up and left with him, out the other door at the back of the room. He couldn't seen much of anything, even if he could see just fine.

He needed to say something to Erina.

He waited until they were outside and alone. It was quiet. Sun was shining. Birds were around. Everybody else in the school was…

They were all just gone. Everybody at the school that he cared about, all his friends and rivals and enemies, every one of them either gone or on their way out. Even his dad had left him there, in the carcass of an empty school with nobody but Nakiri here for him.

The pieces of his heart left lying in the bottom of his chest, molding over and fuzzy for the last few days, one by one burst. Each one set off a little fire in his chest, with a different emotion he didn't have a name for, and burned him. The fire rushed up into his throat and licked at the back of his eyes. It choked him and blinded him, and the force of pushing the tears back down his throat made his blood freeze in his veins, and he started to shiver. He thought he was done with these feelings. He stopped having them after his mom's funeral, when his taught taught him the trick with his hands. He wanted his dad, he needed his dad, and all he had was Nakiri.

"Yukihira?"

All he had was Nakiri.

He turned fast and grabbed her shoulders. "Nakiri, I need you to hit me!"

Her face blazed red. "What?!"

He slammed his hands together. "Like this! I taught it to Tadokoro! I need you to hit your hands against mine as hard as you can-"

Erina stomped her foot. "No!"

"It's fine! My dad used it to keep me from panicking-"

"Your father hit you so you wouldn't cry?!"

Everything just… stopped there. All of him locked up, refused to move. Colors ran together. Sound faded in and out with the pump of blood in his ears.

All he could really see was Erina, standing before him trying to hold back her own tears, refusing to hurt him. She shook her head to clear the hair out of her eyes. "No. No more. No more hurting anybody… I refuse! Yukihira Souma..." She took a long breath. "I hereby give you permission to cry."

That was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard for one breath.

On the second breath, his soul cracked in half, and he fell to his knees and cried in the quad with Nakiri on his shoulder. It felt like hours and hours of crying, soaking his palms and running down his arms into his headband. His nose dripped onto his pants. His chest hurt more with every breath. He hated crying, ever since he was a kid, and he remembered every moment in sharp cutting detail with every sob that hit his ears in that lonely echoing courtyard.

Through it all, Nakiri leaned on his shoulder and held his arm like it was something precious and important. By the time he'd stopped and gathered himself, his shoulder was wet and smudged with the makeup she'd wiped off on his shirt.

He bowed. "I'm sorry..."

She bowed. "I'm sorry..."

He felt sick. "What the hell are we supposed to do now? There's no school left..."

"You're very short-sighted, Yukihira..." Erina sniffed and wiped harshly at her eyes with her sleeve. "When schools close, students go on vacation, of course. I personally will be going to an ryokan in Hokkaido."

"Wha- but the school!" Souma shouted. "Why the hell are you going to Hokkaid-"

Oh.

_Oooooh._

_He needed to pack._


	16. Chapter 16

It had been a ong week. Megumi had settled back into home, but not easily. Being out of the Tootsuki routine was jarring. She was antsy for days afterward, but stepping into the kitchen to work gave her the shakes. She and her mother had long, long talks before she decided not to go back to school for the remainder of the year. She could afford to retake her final year and get her culinary certificate afterwards. The fish market had headhunted her, but between the shivers when she held a knife and the exhaustion that hit her at night, her mother had asked her to simply rest until she could stand again. Thus, she spent the week falling into her old mangas and practicing table tennis at the community center. A few days in, a computer arrived for her in the mail (a gift from Hisako) and she spent the rest of the week learning the internet and communicating with all of her scattered friends. It was very nice, and she had learned how fun computer games could be.

It was lonely. It was so lonely and everything hurt, always. Her legs hurt when she took baths. Her chest hurt when she breathed. She was never hungry but never full and never tasted anything. Nothing helped.

Another long talk with mother had decided that Megumi needed to see her friends, one last time and outside of school, before they settled back into their routines. She called and arranged everything, and left Megumi to rest in her room and read manga until she felt like herself again.

The short week ended on Saturday with her mother announcing guests at her bedroom door, and when she opened it, Yukihira and Nakiri-san were there.

"Tadokoro-san," said Nakiri.

Megumi wanted to scream.

"Please don't scream," said Nakiri.

Megumi whimpered instead.

"So you inviting us in, or what?" said Yukihira.

"Mmahh-Moooom!" Megumi's throat hurt.

"Oh, come on! Like you don't even know us!" Yukihira pushed past her into the room, sitting beside the wall and leaning hard. "Man, the train ride here was rough! You know how hard it is to find an ekiben good enough for Nakiri? I'm starving!"

"D-d-d-" Megumi swallowed hard. "Did you make a reservation?"

Nakiri sat properly, toes crossed in a perfect seiza, across from Yukihira. "Your mother said that friends didn't require a reservation as long as they stayed in your room."

The words hovered in the back of her mind, the place that made her hands shake in the kitchen. The words that screamed out loud in a voice she tried to disown: that they weren't her friends anymore, and they had no place here, and she was angry at her mother for letting them in. So she said nothing, and in that nothing, in the dark tension building around Yukihira and Nakiri's eyes, she could feel the words leaking out into the silence. Yukihira turned away from her and curled up to face the screen into the garden, and Nakiri sighed.

"Tadokoro..." Nakiri wrung her hands. "We apologize for intruding upon your privacy."

"Oh..." Megumi's hands shook. "Thank you. For apologizing."

Souma pouted, "This is awkward as hell, Nakiri. I thought we were here to make things better."

Nakiri went red and shouted, "I don't see you putting forth any effort, Yukihira!"

Megumi nearly jumped out of her skin. "Both of you, please! The guests!"

The two of them both balked and retreated back into their corners. This was so strange. Something had to have brought them here other than a simple "visit"… maybe they really were trying to make amends. Megumi stepped to the door. "Let me get you some tea-"

"Don't leave!"

It wasn't Nakiri talking. It was Yukihira. Megumi froze at the panic, honest panic, that flashed across Yukihira's face when she so much as reached for the door. Even Nakiri looked a bit abashed, and Souma covered up a pinched expression of doubt with a hard shake of his head. He planted his hands on his knees, a perfect picture of Japanese manliness, and tried to talk.

"Look, me and Nakiri have had a whole week of trying to get Tootsuki back in order since this whole mess. Doing Elite 10 work sucks, and you know what sucks worse? Doing all of it yourself!"

Megumi cowed. "I'm sor-"

"Yukihira you are doing it entirely wrong!"

"Well then do something right instead of telling me I'm doing it wrong-!"

Megumi wailed. "The guests!"

All right, Megumi thought, her feelings had to be put aside for later. Nakiri and Yukihira were here, bouncing off their own volatility, but they did seem to need something from her. Maybe they just didn't know how to ask. She took a deep breath and sat before the door, clearing out her nerves until she could leave the room and sort them. "Why don't you both tell me what's happened at Tootsuki? It feels like a long time since I've been back."

"It's been awful!" said Yukihira.

Nakiri said plainly as the weather, "Saiba Asahi is my brother."

Well there went her veneer of cool. Megumi couldn't help the "Eeeh?!" that escaped her.

At least, it finally got something like a smile out of Yukihira. He freed a hand from his knee to claw at the air. "I know, right?! That's what I did!"

"He's the result of an affair my father had in America," Nakiri explained. "Neither of us knew until the police started investigating him. Mother said she had a suspicion about it after she ate his food."

Megumi's gut twisted. "So that means I-"

"Saved me from being forcibly married to my half-brother, yes," said Nakiri, as if it wasn't the most ridiculous notion on Earth. "Thank you, Tadokoro-san."

"You know the worst part?" Yukihira chimed in. "Nakiri still wants him in the family!"

Megumi couldn't help but squeal in horror. Nakiri couldn't mean that! Not Asahi-san! Not afer everything he did to Nakiri! To Yukihira! To the school!

Nakiri's eyebrows furrowed. "I will _consider_ the idea _after_ he was served his prison sentence."

That gave her a little relief. "He's in jail?"

Yukihira aughed through his wicked little grin. "So's her dad."

Nakiri barely nodded. "And my grandfather."

This was all going a little fast for her. "A-and your grandfather."

Yukihira was almost starting to look a little manic. "Turns out you can't just steal a kid from India, give him a Japanese name, and call it a day!"

The question came out of Megumi's mouth without her permission. "And your mother?"

Nakiri huffed. "She, astoundingly, is not actually going to jail. They are making her step down as head of the WGO, though. The blatant favoritism and support of the Noir chefs have ruined her reputation in the culinary community. She's holed herself up in the mansion."

Yukihira rubbed at his chin. "Apparently only Nakiri men have to go to jail."

Nakiri snapped back, "Stop being so cavalier about my family! My uncle is a perfectly respectable man!"

"Great! He'll be the first respectable man to ever run Tootsuki-"

"You're only jealous because your father has made no effort to contact you since the tournament-!"

This was all so very strange. Having the two of them in her own room, their bickering quickly escalating from playful to painful, filling in the big gaps in her knowledge… It would have been almost normal if not for the searing pain of the week before still freshly stamped into her heart. Nakiri and Yukihira were just talking now where they had let her receive all of Tootsuki's abuse before. It felt like a personal insult, even in her attempt to distance herself from it all. She had to swallow down that feeling before it grabbed control of her heart.

She cleared her throat. "Um… I'm sorry, but why are you both here?"

The deafening silence almost made her apologize again. Her fingers stayed clenched tight in her lap while Yukihira and Nakiri stopped, stared, and withdrew into themselves. They were back to being the two in their little corners, sitting still and quiet like disgruntled dolls. She couldn't fill the void for them. They had to either speak their peace, or see her mother to make their reservations. That's all she would allow them.

The shiver in her arms came back, and she recognized it as the weakness that overcame her in the kitchen. She would take her time and seek out that feeling in more detail later. She had no time now.

Eventually Yukihira shifted slightly forward and took a long breath, then another. "This is really hard."

Megumi braced for the worst, unsure of what that could even be after so long.

"You..." He swallowed hard. "No, the book said it had to be 'I' statements. I… I want you to call me 'Souma' again. I still don't… Well, maybe, I guess I do know why you stopped. I learned about it from the school newspaper. Found it on the ground, the day after the big school… fire. Thing. Maybe if I'd known… I probably still would have just done what I was doing anyway, because my pride was more important than everything else that was going on… I can't say it."

Yukihira rolled forward onto his knees, placed his hands down, and knelt into full dogeza.

Megumi couldn't feel a thing. Maybe the constant up-and-down of it all was wearing her out. Maybe she had pushed her feelings down too hard and they were stuck in a corner somewhere. Maybe it her her so out of the blue that she couldn't put together a reaction. Away from her own body, borrowed again by the thing pretending to be Megumi, she waved her hands and tried to say something right that could make this terrible numbness go away. She managed nothing. Even the thing pretending to be her was stumped.

Yukihira's head popped up, and even while his eyes were dewy and his face was flushed (why, Megumi thought, why was he tearing up?), he still chided, "Nakiri you said you would do this with me!"

Nakiri, frozen in her corner, flinched. It was like she had popped out of a trance. "You said yourself it was hard! I haven't found the proper words yet!"

"What, do you have to be Ono no Komachi to apologize to Tadokoro?!" he shouted back. "Stop just sitting around and letting me do things_ for_ you!"

"Guys, the guests!" Tadokora cracked out of her fugue and fell back to her body. "Please- please don't apologize! I shouldn't be apologized to!" The words spilled out of her mouth to finally give a form to the tremor in her hands and the lonely pit in her belly. "I still feel awful about everything I did. I was so swept up in my emotions, and it all happened so quickly, and now there's no Tootsuki for Souma-kun to be the first seat of, and all of Erina-san's family is in jail, and all our friends are moving to other schools, _and I ruined everything you loved because I couldn't stop meddling!_"

Tears came fast enough to blind her. Erina and Souma disappeared behind a veil of water. "I didn't mean to! I'm so sorry! I just wanted you both to be happy together! I'm sorry-!" She crumbled into her knees and sobbed.

"Y-Yukihira! What do I do?!"

"G-give her a hug, damn it!"

Megumi had never been in a softer crushing hug in her entire life. Erina had the raw muscle to toss woks and use heavy cleavers, but her skin was smooth, delicate, and unblemished. Erina was never burned or scalded, and kept herself clean with luxury soaps and fine baths and a perfect diet. But Erina did not hug so much as hold her like a vice, and it almost hurt, but the pain cut through her sobs and brought her back to herself. Megumi almost felt guilty for crying into such a lovely chest, but Erina did not offer it so much as demand it. Her hands had threaded into her hair and held her hostage to the hug.

Souma wrapped himself around the both of them from the side, and he was so masculine. Hard muscles, boyish musk under a smell of cooking oil and charcoal, and rough calloused hands that easily fit around the two little bodies beside him. He pulled them both close, one head to each shoulder, and choked little sobs into her hair.

"Damn it..." he said through the thick emotions in his throat. "I've cried more this week than I have in the last ten years… crying sucks!"

Nakiri tried to shush him, but the shush came out wet and clogged.

"And what's this bullshit about destroying what I love?!" Souma pulled himself away from the hug pile to grab Megumi's hands. "Tadokoro, you know what I loved about Tootsuki? Even before I learned about shokugekis, what I loved was constantly learning and growing and being better! And you know what let me do that?"

"That you never gave up?" she guessed.

Souma grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. "It's because I had amazing friends like you to back me up! Pick up context clues, jeeze! I wouldn't have made it half as far as I did if I wasn't surrounded by amazing people like you!"

"Bu-but I never helped you win anyth-"

Done shaking her, Souma wrapped his arms around both of them again and fell backward. Megumi and Erina landed with a heavy flop onto his shoulders, and he kept talking. "And you know what, that's where I really screwed up! Once I got it into my head that just constantly winning more and more tournaments and competing was more important than my friends? Hell, I was doomed to fail! And you think that you were only my friend if I could help you win things?"

Megumi tried to think of an answer-

Souma crushed her shoulders. "I am a SHIT friend! I'm sorry! See, Nakiri? It's not that hard!"

"But, then Erina-san..." Megumi felt her heart swell. She'd never gotten to hear Erina's side of things in full. It was so hard to get into her mind, behind the reticence and proper etiquette.

Erina, beside her on Souma's torso, took a long breath and swallowed. (She must have clogged her nose crying- but Megumi pushed away the thought out of politeness.) "Tadokoro-san, you destroyed nothing I loved. You closed a school that was robbing me of my life, saw that a family who abused me was properly punished, informed every family who had a child suffering under the regime… I loved none of that." A faint smile crossed her face. "I suppose I only got a kind of sick joy from causing others the same pain I was feeling… It's funny, isn't it? How that cycle continues… and you were the one who broke it."

Erina's voice cracked just a little, just on the end, and Souma pulled them both into another hug and tucked their heads under his chin. "Damn it, don't make my cry again! Crying hurts!"

"We have to cry now..." Erina smiled. "Or we will be thrown out for diluting the bathwater."

She felt like she was supposed to burst, or explode into a cloud of flowers like in her manga. It was less extreme, she supposed, but so much more fulfilling. Megumi started to giggle, not because it was funny but because it was right to laugh, and it was like color coming back after blindness. Like a cast coming off a broken limb and feeling air against her skin again. Here, lying on the floor, face aching from crying, warm on top of her two lost friends finally back and only to make her feel better, Megumi finally felt something extraordinary.

This, in a life full of setbacks and losses, had finally won something.

"See, this?" said Souma. "This is what life's supposed to be! Getting away from work for a while to sit on the floor with your friends! Nothing more Japanese on Earth!"

"Sitting on the floor is actually very common in the Middle East as well..." Megumi gasped as a thought struck her. "Wait! What about Hisako? She left the school because of me! You're not angry about that, Erina-san?"

Souma laughed. "Who do you think got us your address?"

"Megumi-chan, your mother said someone was here already-" Hisako rounded the doorway into the room as if summoned by the hands of fate. "E-Erina-sama! You're on the floor!"

"Yes!" said Erina. "And I demand you join me!"

Souma shouted. "Yeah, come sit between me and Nakiri! There's room!" He pulled Megumi closer. "Tadokoro's taken, though."

Hisako scoffed and smirked. "I refuse to share when Erina's other side is completely free!"

"Wait, what's free?" Yuki's head popped out of the door frame before the entirety of her plowed into Megumi's other side. "Megumi-chiiii! You're smiling again!"

Erina folded Hisako over her side and arranged her comfortably. "How long has it been since Tadokoro-san smiled?"

"A whole week!"

Erina held Megumi's hand. "I have caused you too much pain, and I am so sorry."

Megumi was certain she was going to burst, now, from the happiness surging up from her heart.

Daigo marched into the room with a case of candy. "Oh sweet, a pile of chicks!"

Shoji followed with a crate of Ramune. "And one Yukihira."

Daigo shrugged. "Close enough."

Souma pulled at his eyelid. His arm caught Erina's head and bunched up her face in his elbow.

"Why is everybody stopping in the door?!" Ikumi pushed past the boys, and her jaw dropped at the sight of Souma on the floor in a pile of four other girls and now Daigo. "Yukihira, what the hell?!"

"What, you upset?" He wiggled his feet. "If you wanna sit down, there's still room between my legs!"

Megumi was certain the guests heard the absolute shriek of delight and scandal and humor that erupted from the room and out in the hall where Isshiki and Alice and Ryou and everyone was waiting. Only Takumi and Isami were left out, already back in Italy, but they woke up in the middle of their night to chat over a video call and be there with the rest of them for a while. Megumi's friends stayed well into the night to talk their futures and past, their schools and their dreams, and when stomachs started to growl, Souma broke out his charcoal grill.

"You know, I've missed your cooking." He laid it out on Megumi's wooden deck, facing the garden. "A lot. Nakiri's never even gotten to try it, you know."

Megumi gave him a little smile. "I know."

"Could you cook something for us, please..." he swallowed to wet his throat. "M-Megumi-san?"

"If you like..." she glowed. "You can just call me Megumi, Souma!"

With joy and steady hands, Megumi cooked her friends hot dogs and marshmallows and grilled scallops with butter and soy sauce over rice. She served Erina the final weiner on a blackened stick in the hot summer night air. Erina took a delicate bite and puffed around the hot meat, and she smiled.

"It's delicious!"


End file.
